Phantom Christmas
by TrojanHalks2012
Summary: Vlad returns to strike fear into everyones hearts.
1. Introduction

******It was recently brought to my attention that the Original Phantom Holiday Trilogy was deleated by CDON. So as they no longer exist on this site, I feel no guilt in reposting my re-written versions of them on here. I found some free time today and will be using some of it to post on this site as well as continue writing some. Hope you all enjoy.**

* * *

A frigid December air was rapidly approaching Amity Park. In fact, many residents woke up on the very first day in December to find that their hometown had been buried underneath more than three feet of snow; half of which had been around since Thanksgiving. It had snowed so much the previous night that school had been cancelled for all students.

Many younger children were seen playing in the snow, overjoyed by the fact of not having to attend school that day. The children playing in the snow had gotten bundled up in warm clothing and had gone out in the snow which was nearly as deep as many of them were tall. Some tossed snowballs back and forth while others rolled up snowmen and built igloos. Others made snow angles while others took the opportunity to dig tunnels underneath the snow.

Other kids, teenagers to be more precise, preferred to lie in bed and act like they had nothing better to do…that…or they were just too darn lazy to roll out of bed after hearing that school had been canceled. One teenage boy in particular was just that.

Danny Fenton; the town's, and the world's, most well known ghost hero Danny Phantom; was lying in his bed underneath two thick blankets that did no good due to only covering part of his chest and stomach. His legs and arms hung out and flopped over the edges of the bed like wet noodles.

A quick shot at his room's thermostat revealed that it had been preset to eighty-two degrees, Danny liked his room warm. He rolled in his sleep and snored silently, murmuring random gibberish into his pillow at random intervals. He probably would have slept right through the day, but a certain little cloned cousin of his wasn't about to let that happen.

In the early hours of the morning; sometime around seven-thirty; Danny stirred when he felt something on his chest, something that had enough weight to it to restrict his breathing. His eyes slowly twitched open and he looked towards the ceiling only to find a pair of baby blue eyes looking right into his.

"YAAAH!" he screamed himself awake as the pair of eyes suddenly pulled away. They had belonged to Danielle, his cloned cousin and the Fenton's houseguest. She was also the newest member of Team Phantom and so was thus fitting in nicely.

"Good morning, Danny!" she said cheerfully before she bent over and pecked him on the cheek. "You're not gunna believe what happened today," she said excitedly.

"You let me sleep in?" he groaned as he turned over and hid his head underneath his pillow.

"No," Danielle chuckled as she pulled the pillow away from his head and tossed it aside, thus forcing him to get out of bed. "I mean you're not gunna believe what happened outside," she said as she jumped off the bed and ran for the window. She grabbed the pull strings and tugged on them.

"NO DANI, WAIT!" Danny called out, but it was too late. The blinds were pulled open and the room was suddenly flooded with sunlight.

"Ahh!" Danielle sighed as she looked outside at the white wonderland that lay before her. "Do you remember what it was like when you experienced your first snow day?" she asked him without looking away from the window.

"Do you remember what it was like when I had corneas?" Danny grunted in response as he rubbed his eyes after being blinded by the sudden flood of light that had entered his room. He stumbled out of bed and made his way to the window. "Huh, I'd say another foot of snow dropped on us over the night," he figured.

"Can we go out and play!?" Danielle asked excitedly as she jumped up and down. "Can we!? Can we!? Can we!?"

"You know, I never acted this jittery when I experienced my first snow day," he informed the girl. "Most kids your age have experienced at least a dozen by now."

"How many do we get?" Danielle asked curiously.

"Ohh, I'd say we average about two a year," Danny answered before he walked away towards his dresser and changed into his regular clothes. Danielle turned and looked out the window in embarrassment before Danny came back up to her. "Lucky you though; two weeks into Junior High and you're already given a day off," he said as he shook his head from side to side.

"So; now can we go out and play?" Danielle asked sweetly. "I've never felt snow before and I'm really curious."

"There has been snow on the ground for almost half a month!" Danny scolded her. "You're telling me that you haven't once bent down and made a snowball!?" he asked her angrily.

Danielle was silent for a moment before she answered with a quick and quiet, "No," she squeaked. She looked down sadly and made a circle with the toe of her shoe to show her innocence.

"Ugh!" Danny sighed. "Alright, let's go eat first," he finally gave in. He turned to walk out but Danielle caught his attention again.

"What if we've already eaten?" she asked curiously.

"Well, you have two stomachs," Danny teased her. "You're not bulging at the seams so I'm pretty sure you can pack away another bowl of cereal," he mocked her before he walked out of the room, leaving Danielle to scold after him.

* * *

A short time later, the two Danny's and Jazz were sitting down in the living room eating cereal while they watched the TV, more specifically, the news. "And we have reports of something from the park," explained news anchor, Tiffany Snow. "Reporting on this live is our very own reporter, Lance Thunder. Lance?" she said as she turned towards a TV screen on the wall behind her depicting a man with blonde hair on camera in the park.

"I don't get it," Lance Thunder muttered to himself. "I could've sworn I quit so many fri-Uh… Tiffany!" he said as he struggled to regain a straight face. "We have reports of-EEEEEEK!" he squealed as a barrage of snowballs hit him. "WHY DON'T I QUIT?!" he screeched before the message 'Currently Experiencing Technical Difficulties. Please stand by' appeared on the multi-colored screen.

"What's the count?" Danny asked through a mouthful of cereal.

"He's quit five times in the last week and a half," Danielle answered through her own mouthful of cereal.

"Will the two of you swallow before you talk?" Jazz requested angrily after swallowing her food.

Their attention was drawn from the TV to Maddie as she is heard descending the stairs with a large box in hand. She grunted as she set the box on the coffee table in front of the three kids.

"Ahh, the traditional 'bringing-of-the-holiday-stuff-down-from-the-attic'," Danny sighed happily. "Things couldn't be merrier."

Danielle slapped her spoon back into her cereal bowl splashing milk onto the table. "What is with all of these traditions?" she asked angrily. "First it's the biggest meal of the year, and then it's the first annual snowfall, and now it's this. What could possibly be next?"

"Well we've gotta start decorating for the Christmas Season dear," Maddie said in a soothing tone as she pulled the tape keeping the box shut, off. "I swear, if the box ghost is in here again, I'm gunna blow a gasket," she muttered. She eventually opened the box and nothing came out, so all was safe.

She began rummaging around before she pulled out a small lamp with Christmas décor painted all over its sides. She set it on the table next to the box; the new addition caught Danielle's attention. "What's this thing?" she asked.

"Ohh, when I was your age my grandmother gave it to me on Christmas Day," Maddie answered as she took a short trip back through memory lane. "We haven't gone a Christmas yet where I haven't pulled it out and set it up."

Danielle sat back in her seat as Maddie continued to rummage through the box. Danny and Jazz shot quick, devious glances at one another before they went back to watching their mother dig through the box. Suddenly she found something that didn't quite belong.

"YAAAAH!" she screamed; she stood up shaking her hands before she turned and dashed into the kitchen, leaving Danny and Jazz to laugh hysterically, and a confused Danielle to wonder what just happened.

"And then there's the also traditional 'finding-of-the-big, hairy, plastic-spider, that Jazz hid in the box the previous year'," Danny said with smirk before he and Jazz slapped hands.


	2. Part 1

Sometime later into the day, Maddie had brought down more and more boxes and was currently trying to untangle them while Jack inspected each individual light bulb for blown fuses. They were so inert on doing this themselves, Danielle finally managed to get Danny and Jazz outside.

Danielle was like a puppy chewing on a new bone, she was having the time of her life; digging her way through the snow which was almost as deep as she was tall. She had dug out a large circle in the center of the street in front of Fenton-Works and was currently busy making an igloo while Danny and Jazz supervised.

"Remember when we were twelve?" Jazz asked her younger brother. "She's having so much fun; much like we used to have."

"Yah," Danny agreed. "But these days I'd much rather be sleeping in," he admitted with a yawn.

By this point in the day, most of the roads had been cleared by snowplows. The only snow still in the roads had been blown back by wind. While Danny and Jazz kept an eye on the younger girl as she played in the snow, Sam and Tucker trudged through the snow as they came up behind the other two. The very first thing they took notice of was the girl playing in the snow.

"She's still here?" Tucker whispered to Sam through clenched teeth as he forced out a smile.

"Danny has got to let her go sometime," Sam whispered through the same clenched teeth as she forced a smile.

Danny heard them whispering to each other and turned to see them smiling at him with cheeky, nervous grins. "Hey Guys," he waved to them with a welcoming smile. "Common, join us," he beckoned them over.

"Uhh, what for?" Tucker asked nervously, fearing that it had something to do with Danielle; his suspicions proved to be correct.

"Well this is Danielle's first winter," Danny answered as he went back to observing the girl digging through the snow. "It's her first real experience with snow; remember how experimentive we were, when we were her age? Playing out in the snow was a brand new experience."

"Shouldn't she be in school?" Sam growled.

"All schools were closed today, remember?" Jazz reminded her in response. "No High School and no Middle School." Tucker immediately pulled out his PDA and began typing rapidly. "What are you doing?" she asked him curiously.

"As mayor, I have a strong impact on the school networks in this town," he answered. "I'm complaining to the Jr. High school board," he grunted before a snowball hit him in the head. His entire face was covered with snow but his eyes still peered through in a scowl. Danielle rasp-berried before she laughed and jumped into a pile of snow, disappearing from view as she became buried alive on her own accord.

"Did you feed her candy again?" Sam asked angrily as she scolded Danny and Jazz.

"No," Danny responded. "Remember how hyped up we were when we were her age? Playing in the snow brings out the child in all of us."

Sam and Tucker didn't seem convinced. They continued to scowl before someone within Fenton-Works grunted angrily. "What going on in there?" Tucker asked with concern.

"Mom and dad are decorating the living room with Christmas lights," Jazz answered before someone is heard yelling ferociously. The four teens looked towards the brick building and gasped. Danielle popped her head out of the snow and looked on with confusion before all five of them ran for the house.

The door slammed open and they all ran in to find to their surprise that the entire living room had been decked out with hundreds of Christmas lights and other decorations, with the exception of a Christmas tree.

Jack was still looking over Christmas bulbs for blown fuses, but Maddie was on her hands and knees by a wall socket with an electrical cord in hand. She was trying to plug the lights in but the thing that made her the angriest about the whole arrangement was that she was short to the outlet they planned on using…by only a half-inch.

"Curse this stupid-!" she cussed; luckily Jazz managed to cover Danielle's ears. From the young girl's perspective Maddie mouthed words as she ferociously tugged on the electric cord in a desperate attempt to make it long enough to reach the wall outlet. She eventually resulted in chucking it to the ground and stomping off in a huff.

She left the five kids to stand in the unlit living room in complete bewilderment. Danny, Jazz, Sam and Tucker were wide eyes and speechless after having heard everything she had shouted. Jazz's hands were still covering Danielle's ears. "What happened?" she asked as she struggled to free herself from Jazz's grasp. "What did she say? Why's she angry?"

* * *

Sometime later, Maddie had had time to calm down. She had done some reconfiguration with the lights so the extension cord would finally reach the wall outlet. She was currently watching TV with Jack while Danielle sat by the window, leaning on a small cupboard with closed doors. She was watching the evening snow fall gently outside into the streets. She heard the sound of footsteps and turned around to see Danny and Jazz in their snow coats, the latter holding a ladder in her arm.

"What's the ladder for?" she asked, pointing at the step ladder Jazz was carrying.

"Well someone!" Danny responded loudly as he shot a glance at his sister. "Forgot to inspect the lights before we hung them up on the outside of the Op-center." Jazz shot a scolding look back at him as he continued. "Now mom and dad are making us go out and fix them before night fall; otherwise the entire house is gunna look foolish with burned out light bulbs."

"Well why do you need a ladder?" Danielle asked. "Can't you use your powers to fly up there? Or even the stairs to get up there for that matter?" she added as she pointed at the stairs.

"We're doing things the old fashioned way," Jazz said.

She turned towards the door, swinging the ladder towards Danny; luckily he was able to duck out of the way before the metal climbing device hit him. "Hey! Watch where you're swinging that thing!" he yelled after her before they disappeared outside.

Danielle turned to look back out the window and watched Danny and Jazz bicker among each other as they set up the ladder outside the window and climbed up and out of sight. She sighed of boredom; she kicked her feet and accidently hit the side of the cupboard she was leaning on. It would have been no big deal if she hadn't heard something inside fall over.

"Huh?" she questioned as she leaned down and opened one of the cupboard doors and peered inside. A few photo album books sat vertically off to one side, but one in particular had fallen over and was laying horizontally. She pulled it out and opened it up. "What's this?" she asked herself as she examined the old photos on the first page. The very first picture was of a much younger Maddie in a hospital bed with a baby with faint red hair in her arms. "Hey Aunt Maddie?" she called out.

"Yes dear?" Maddie asked as she looked up from watching TV with her husband.

Danielle came over and sat on the couch between her and Jack. She re-opened the photo album and pointed to the first picture. "Is that Jazz?" she asked.

"Hey! The family photo album!" Jack said in surprise. "I haven't seen this thing in years," he said delightfully.

"Oh," Maddie sighed happily as she looked through the photos. "That was the day after she was born," she answered Danielle's question. "Jack and I spent nearly five hours trying to name her," she chuckled. "We argued and argued before finally settling on Jasmine."

"I still wanted to name her after my Aunt Gloria," Jack muttered to himself.

Maddie flipped the page over to another set of pictures; a few down showing yet another baby. Danny, identified by his black hair, was laughing playfully as he hit a red headed toddler in the head with a rattle. "Why is Danny hitting Jazz with that thing?" Danielle asked curiously.

"Danny and Jazz didn't get along very well at that age," Maddie sighed over the photo.

The sound of bickering came from outside. "I don't think they get along at this age," Danielle said after looking up from the photo album and out the window at the ladder which was still in view.

Outside on the roof of Fenton-Work's directly beneath the Op-Center, Danny and Jazz worked diligently to get the lights back up and running. "How could someone with your intelligence and need to make things right forget to check the lights before hanging them?" Danny asked angrily as he replaced one light bulb for another.

"I'm only human Danny," Jazz growled as she too swapped out one bad bulb for another. "We all make mistakes."

"Except you," he responded. He grabbed the electrical cord and lifted the plastic cover to an outlet before he plugged the lights in. They all lit right up as expected. "And they live," he said aloud. "Let's get back inside; it's too cold out here," he suggested.

"Agreed," Jazz said as she stood off her hands and knees. "I could really go for some hot choco-LAAAAATE!" she suddenly screamed. She had slipped in the snow and had gotten her foot caught up in a tangle of lights.

"WHAA!" Danny screamed as Jazz slid into him, the resulting collision knocked them both off the roof with the trail of Christmas lights trailing after them. They fell out of sight and the cord suddenly pulled tight, causing the lights that had been placed in positions around the Op-Center to pull free and fall after the two teens.

A sudden crash from several metal trashcans being knocked over caused Danielle and Maddie to look up from the photo album. "What is going on out there?" Maddie asked no one in particular as she scowled towards the front door.

The door slowly opened to reveal Danny and Jazz standing on the stoop. Not only were they covered in snow after having fallen off the house, they were wrapped up in Christmas lights to the point where they were stuck together. One of Danny's legs was held up off the ground so it appeared that they were in a three-legged race. The slightly bent ladder was held under Jazz's free arm.

Danielle burst into laughter and rolled off the couch and onto the floor. Maddie folded her arms and shook her head in sorrow at the two teens. "What am I supposed to do with the two of you?" she inquired.

* * *

A few hours had since passed and night had finally fallen over Amity Park. Danny, Jazz and Danielle walked into the kitchen with boxes in hand after finally fixing the lights outside on the Op-center. They set them on the table before Jazz turned on the radio, tuning it in to the first channel that started playing Christmas music. "There, that oughta lighten up the mood," she implied before she went back to the table as Danny sifted through the boxes. He pulled out a smaller box and set it on the table in front of Danielle.

She grabbed the box and peered inside curiously. "What are these things?" she asked as she held up folded pieces of thick paper with holiday pictures on them.

"They're called Christmas cards," Jazz answered as she took the smaller box from the girl and removed the rest of the cards. "Mom and Dad want us to address them and send out season's greetings to all of our family friends," she explained.

"And with three of us here, it'll be easier than previous years," Danny implied. "It'll go much faster."

"How so?" Danielle asked as Jazz pulled another smaller box out of the larger box they had brought in.

"Because there are three steps to making holiday cards," Jazz answered. "Writing in the cards, addressing the envelopes," she counted off on her fingers as she held up the unopened box of letter envelopes. "And finally sealing them," she added with a bit of hesitation.

"We'll be handling the writing of the cards and envelopes," Danny spoke up. "That leaves you with the duty of sealing the envelopes after we're done with them," he informed the girl.

"What do I have to do?" Danielle asked as she settled herself into her chair.

Danny grabbed a card and wrote 'Happy Holidays from Danny, Danielle, and Jazz' on the inside of it. He passed it off to Jazz who stuffed it into and envelope and addressed the outside. She then passed it off to Danielle who waited for instructions.

"You see this line at the top of the flap?" Danny said as he indicated the glue on the inside of the envelope. "When you lick that, the glue will activate and you will be able to seal the envelope closed."

Danielle held up the envelope and got really close, sticking out her tongue and licked the entire length of the off colored strip on the inside of the flap. "BLEH!" she gagged, pulling herself away from the envelope. "That tasted disgusting!" she complained as she sealed the envelope shut.

"You'll get used to it after a few more envelopes," Jazz reassured her. "We've got thirty-five more to go; so get used to the taste quickly," she advised.

Time passed quickly as more Christmas songs played over the radio. Danielle reluctantly played along and sealed the envelopes as Danny and Jazz wrote out the messages and addresses. The next eleven cards were written correctly, but as they progressed the wording changed drastically; reading 'Happy Dannydays from Holi, Dazz, and Janielle' and even 'Happy Hazzidays from Dol, Daelle, and Janny'.

While Danny rubbed his hand Jazz looked over the very last card. "I think you should've taken a break between every few cards," she said before handing it off to Danielle to seal it away within an envelope.

"Oh, ya think," Danny scoffed as he massaged his aching hands.

The last envelope was slapped onto the table into a pile that was looking ready to spill over the edge of the table. Danielle jumped off her seat with a look of exhaustion. "Uh neeb somhing do dink," she groaned, her words almost unrecognizable. Her tongue had become dry after licking three dozen envelopes.

She went to the fridge and drank something; she stayed behind the fridge door to conceal herself and whatever she was drinking. She came back out and shut the door before walking back up to the table and yawned, opening her mouth as wide as she could. Her eyes drooped and she wobbled on her feet.

Jazz took notice of the young girl's condition. "You're looking pretty tired considering that it's only eight o' clock," she observed. "Common," she said as she stood and led the girl out of the kitchen. "I'll put you to bed."

"But I don't wanna go to bed this early," Danielle complained before she yawned again.

"I'll tell you a bed time story to help you sleep," Jazz reassured the girl as they walked out of the room. She turned back to her brother before they went out of sight. "Hey, you don't mind cleaning up in here do yah?" she asked him.

"Not at all, your majesty," Danny growled. "Your wish is my command," he mocked her by bowing to her.

"UGH!" Jazz groaned with disgust before she turned and walked out of sight to tuck Danielle into bed.

Danny cleaned up in the kitchen for the next few minutes; putting leftover blank cards and envelopes back into their boxes before storing them in the larger box. He set the box off to the side and proceeded to make himself some food to cure a sudden hunger pain before his movie date with Sam within the hour.

His mother walked into the kitchen after working tediously down in the lab while he ate away at a sandwich. "You kids get the cards done?" she asked him as she removed her goggled hood.

"Yes mom," Danny groaned in response before he took a bite out of his sandwich. "And in record time too with Danielle helping us," he added.

"Well that's good," she said with delight as she went towards the cupboard and removed a glass. "At least your day has been more productive than ours," she groaned sadly.

"How so?" Danny asked, looking up from his dinner.

"Your father's been working on an invention that can detect when Santa is near when he 'supposedly' comes on Christmas day," she growled. "And of course it doesn't work right, so he expects me to fix it!"

"That's like throwing a rock at a bee hive," Danny moaned as he face-palmed himself. "Nothing happens to the rock, but the thrower gets stung." He of course was relating the Santa detector to the rock, his mother as the beehive and the bees, and his father as the unwitting rock thrower. "So, does it work now?" he asked out of curiosity.

"The only way to be sure is to wait until Christmas Day," his mother stated as she went to the fridge and opened the door. "Although I already know that it's not gunna work," she growled angrily before she ducked her head into the fridge.

"If you have to wait until then to figure out of it work's or not, then how do you know it was even broken to begin with?" Danny asked her.

Maddie poked her head back out from behind the fridge door with a scowl on her face. "Don't even get me started," she warned him.

She ducked back beneath the door and stuck her head into the cool mist as a light fog rolled out and into the warmer air of the kitchen. She moved a few bottles and beakers containing ecto-plasmic residue samples and other odd and disgusting experiments aside in search of something. Luckily there were no mutant hotdogs to hinder her search.

The smell wasn't so bad either. Jazz's constant nagging about the smell of rotting flesh finally broke her father down and he threw out the old emergency ham which had been in there for close to that of a year; replacing it with a brand new juicy ham that made the aroma of the enclosed space that much more delectable to the human senses.

"A ha," Maddie said upon finding what she was looking for. "Hiding in the back," she said as she reached her hand into the fridge. Danny looked up from his dinner once again to watch his mother remove an entire gallon of eggnog from the confines of the fridge. A look of confusion spread across her face as she held it up as if to assess its contents. "That's odd," she said as she maneuvered it up and down. She unscrewed the cap and turned it over her glass, but only a single drop of the milky liquid dripped out. "I just bought this yesterday and it's already gone!?" she half yelled angrily.

"Hey it wasn't me," Danny said in self defense as he held up his hands towards his mother. "I still can't stand that stuff; not after getting the flu a few years ago."

"Well someone drank it all," Maddie huffed. "Couldn't have been Jack, he only drinks the fudge flavored eggnog," she reminded herself as she pondered over who the culprit could have been.

A sudden thought suddenly hit Danny. "I think I may know who it was," he said as he got up from the table and ran from the room; leaving his baffled mother to stand there wondering whom he had in mind.

* * *

Upstairs; Jazz sat on Danielle's bed with her arms around the young girl sitting curled up in her lap. She appeared to be rocking Danielle back and forth as she finished telling her a bedtime story. "And that's how Danny and I recovered the Holy Grail from the notorious mole people," Jazz said with delight.

"You know?" Danielle questioned. "Danny once told me the same story, only you guys recovered the Holy Grail from Skulker."

"Oh, Danny and his stories," Jazz said nervously. "He's always making up crazy stories to entertain the masses," she chuckled.

Danielle scowled at her older cousin before she sighed. "I guess I can't argue," she said, suppressing the urge to speak against the older girl. "After all, you guys are letting me stay here," she figured.

"Well that's cause you're family," Jazz reminded the girl. She picked her up and stood up before laying the girl in her bed and covered her up in her blankets. "You're only a little girl; we can't just send you back out onto the streets. You need a lot of love and care. Especially during this time of the year," she pointed out. Danielle smiled and blushed before Danny appeared in the doorway to the hallway.

"I've got a bone to pick with you," he said as he pointed at them. Danielle gulped nervously but Danny confronted Jazz. "You've had a history if over-drinking eggnog," he reminded her accusingly.

Jazz scowled at him. "What are you getting at?" she growled angrily.

"Mom just bought a whole gallon of the stuff the other day and it's already gone," Danny said as he pointed his thumb over his shoulder. "I still can't drink that stuff and dad only drinks the fudge flavored stuff and mom didn't even realize it was all gone."

"Oh, right, so based on my past addiction to the stuff you're accusing me of drinking it all?" Jazz asked curiously. "Who do you think you are? A crime scene investigator?" she chuckled to herself.

"I think that someone was careless enough to drink the whole thing," Danny replied. "And I think that it was you," he accused her.

"Oh please!" Jazz scoffed. "If I drank that much eggnog in one sitting I'd be tired and exhausted, not to mention drinking that much at once would make any normal person sick," she implied in her own defense. By now Danielle was becoming quite nervous and was even beginning to shake.

"Well if mom and dad didn't drink it all, and we didn't drink it all, then who did?" Danny asked curiously.

He and Jazz thought about who the culprit could have been by holding their chins and looking towards the ground. Danielle's nervousness finally got the best of her. "Why are you guys looking at me like that?" she asked them. Danny and Jazz had been looking at the floor but they looked up at the girl in her bed when she said that. She realized her mistake and raised her bed sheets to hide her face.

"Hold on," Jazz said to her brother as she left him and walked up beside the girl's bedside and pulled down her sheets. She leaned over close enough to Danielle's face to smell her breath. "YUCK! Nog-breath!" she said with disgust, stepping away from the bed and holding her nose.

"You need to do a better job of hiding what you eat and drink," Danny suggested to the young girl in bed as if she could actually control what her breath smelled like after ingesting such a large quantity of eggnog.

A knocking on the front door downstairs made Danny leave the room with Jazz following close on his heels. "We'll talk about this thing with the eggnog later," she informed the girl before she shut the door behind her, leaving Danielle to lay in her bed in a huff. She smirked before she went intangible and sunk through her bed and out of sight.

* * *

Danny jumped down the last few steps to the landing before he ran for the front door and opened it with a mighty swing, startling Sam who was about to knock once again. She jumped back in surprise before she recognized her boyfriend. "Took you long enough," she taunted him with a sinister grin.

"Hey, you came early and I was upstairs conducting an investigation into who drank a whole gallon of eggnog," he informed her as his excuse for not answering the door any sooner. "Besides you didn't need to knock, you know you're allowed in here," he reminded her with a confused look.

Sam walked inside, passing him as he shut the door in her wake. "The door was locked and your parents won't let me have a key," she argued. "And I can't just phase through it like you do at my house," she pointed out.

"How is the mood at your place anyway?" Jazz asked as she descended the stairs with more care than her younger brother. She had apparently overheard hers and Danny's conversation.

"Well my parents are happy about my mood," Sam replied cheerfully. "They ask why I'm not this cheery every day," she added with a grin.

"You just love getting under their skin," Danny pointed out with a chuckle.

"Well yah, there's that," Sam admitted. "That and this is the only time of the year that they don't try to make me act more like them."

"Well that's nice to hear," Jazz said happily before she turned to Danny. "I'm gunna go give mom the news that Ms. Two-Stomachs upstairs drank all the eggnog," she said as she pointed up towards the ceiling.

"She's the one that drank all of the eggnog?" Sam asked with a scowl as Jazz disappeared into the kitchen to go down into the lab; her question referring to Danny's comment about conducting an investigation a minute before hand. "She's not off to a good start for the holidays."

"She doesn't understand what the holidays are about yet," Danny said, covering up for his cloned cousin. "Cut her some slack, it's her first Christmas."

"You mean you guys haven't told her the truth about Santa or anything else Christmassy?" Sam inquired as she folded her arms and cocked an eyebrow.

"Nor have we warned her quite yet about my sorta hatred of this dreaded holiday and why I don't like it to begin with," Danny responded with an angered scowl. "I'm hoping Jazz'll give her the full story before she experiences one of my parents Christmas brawls," he admitted gloomily.

"You mean like how Tucker and I found out?" Sam asked with another cocked eyebrow.

"She's only twelve," Danny said as he shrugged his shoulders. "I don't want her to have the same opinion of this holiday as me all because of my parents," he informed his Gothic girlfriend. "I'd rather her find out about the arguments my parents have from either me or Jazz before she experiences it firsthand."

"Danny, either way she finds out, she'll be fine," Sam reassured him; as much as it hurt her to admit about the little nuisance. "She's a…fighter…like you," she struggled to say with a straight face before she regained her composure. "She'll have her own opinions about Christmas, she just needs the right people to show her the importance of the holiday; and hopefully it will bring joy into that little black heart of hers."

"Black heart?" Danny asked with a confused look, making Sam extremely nervous.

"Oh, did I say she had a black heart?" she asked as she began to blush. "I must have had hers confused with mine," she quickly made up an excuse in hopes that he would buy it.

Danny gave her a skeptical look before he shook his head, making her awkwardly nervous. "You know what?" he asked her, causing her to sweat and gulp nervously. "Regarding what you said, you're right," he admitted. Sam sighed a breath of relief as Danny continued. "She just needs the right inspiration from the right person; I can only hope that either Jazz or myself gets to her before my parents."

They both held hands and blushed before they noticed something hanging just above their heads. A piece of mistletoe was suspended above them for who knows how long. "According to traditions we're supposed to kiss," Sam stated as she blushed beat red.

"I guess we're supposed to kiss then," Danny replied as he too began to blush beat red. "Better follow traditions," he said nervously.

"Alright we've done this a hundred times," Sam said in a more serious tone. "There's no reason for us to be nervous about this," she implied.

"True, so very true," Danny said as he looked deep into her lavender colored eyes.

They both puckered their lips and prepared to kiss. Sam blushed again as she waited for him to kiss her, but his lips never made it to hers. "Danny?" she asked without opening her eyes. "Danny?" she asked again, this time opening one eye to see what was keeping him. He had become focused on the leafy plant suspended above them. "Danny!" she snapped. "You're supposed to kiss me in case you've forgotten," she hissed. "What on Earth could possibly have enticed you?" she asked as she threw her arms into the air over her head.

"This mistletoe that's suspended above us," he answered as he appeared to be studying the plant with curiosity.

"What about it?" Sam growled; she was still angry that she hadn't received her kiss.

"Well there's no string tying it to the ceiling and it's not tacked or pinned or anything," he informed her. "It's actually suspended in mid-air," he pointed out as he pointed up to it. A close-up of it revealed it was in-fact floating in mid-air, directly above their heads.

"Whoa, good call," Sam admitted as she apparently began to calm down over the situation. "I guess this means your house is haunted," she snickered.

"Ha ha," Danny pretended to laugh before he went back to studying the plant. "Wait a second," he whispered loud enough for Sam to hear him. "Dani!?" he hollered.

The culprit phased through the ceiling in her ghost form with the mistletoe in hand upon hearing her name being called out. "Aww, how'd you guess it was me?" she asked sadly.

"Well, the fact that the mistletoe was suspended in mid-air for one," Sam informed the ghost girl as she wrapped her arms around Danny's waist and vis-versa. "Common, let's go," she advised him as she began to drag him towards the door. "Or we'll be late for our movie."

"Can I come with you?" Dani asked cheerfully in the hopes that she wouldn't be left out.

"This is Danny-Sam time," Sam said as she opened the front door and walked out into the cold night air.

"Sorry Dani, maybe next time," Danny apologized. "You need to go back to bed," he advised her before he walked outside and closed the door behind him, leaving a sad Dani to sigh in disappointment before she phased back up through the ceiling to return to her bedroom.

Outside on the sidewalk, Danny caught up with Sam as she waited with folded arms, her foot tapping patiently on the iced over concrete. "She sure has her uses after all," Sam admitted before she pecked Danny on the cheek. They walked off down the sidewalk, arm in arm. Sam laid her head on his shoulder as they walked away into a blackout.

* * *

Yet another week passed in Amity Park and no more snow had fallen, giving the road authority enough time to clear away enough snow to reopen roads and allowing schools to continue teaching the youths of tomorrow, but for holidays sake we'll skip that and go right to the next weekend.

Danielle strolled out of the bathroom early in the morning; her hair wet and uncombed, she had yet to tie her hair up into a pony tail so it hung down to her shoulders and spiked out on either side. All she wore was a pink bathrobe that was tied neatly around her waist, keeping her from becoming exposed for all to see.

She walked down the hallway towards her room to get dressed when she passed by Jazz's room and peeked in to see the older girl sitting at a work desk against the far wall as she stared at a calendar hanging on the wall. The first week of the calendar had little red X's crossing out the days, she was counting down the days until Christmas apparently.

Jazz sighed as she continued to stare at the calendar with unblinking eyes. Danielle decided she should investigate what had gotten her older cousin into such a rut. "What's wrong?" the young girl asked as she came into the room and stopped next to the desk Jazz was sitting at.

"All year long the days just seem to fly by so fast," Jazz answered in a sarcastic tone. "But when December rolls around-" she added much more sadly. "-They go by so stinking slow," she groaned.

"Well the days have been going by the same for me," Danielle contemplated.

"That's because you're not so keen on waiting for something that doesn't come until the end of the month," Jazz groaned. "Consider yourself lucky you're not suffering from the same boredom that I am, waiting for Christmas Day to arrive."

"Well as I've heard you guys saying, it's worth the wait isn't it?" Danielle asked curiously. "I wouldn't really know; you guys have been neglecting to explain to me what Christmas is ever since Halloween."

"Well I guess I could explain a few things to you," Jazz thought to herself out loud. "It would certainly keep myself entertained for a little while." She thought to herself as Danielle started to become jumpy at the thought of finally learning some things about the upcoming magical holiday. "Oh what the heck," she finally said with a shrug of her shoulders."

"YES!" Danielle said happily as she jumped for joy. She followed Jazz over to the bed and jumped into the older girl's lap as she sat on the mattress and the neatly folded covers.

"Alright, I'm sure by now you've heard stories about Santa Clause from your friends at school," Jazz speculated as the girl got situated into her lap. "So why don't you tell me what you know about him and I'll fill in any blank spots; hopefully there aren't TOO many," she said with a nervous grin.

"He's really big and wears a red and white suit," Danielle said joyfully. "He lives at the North Pole and has magical flying reindeer. He has many little helpers called 'elves' that make wooden toys and junk, and he delivers them to children all across the globe in one night."

"Not much left about him to tell," Jazz said as she thought to herself silently. The light bulb in her head went off and she knew what blank spots in the girl's description she could fill. "Did you know he only delivers toys to children that have been good all year long?" she asked the girl curiously.

"No, the teachers left that part out," Danielle answered. "Wait a minute?" she suddenly blurted out in astonishment. "I'm only a few months old; does that mean I won't get anything?" she asked in a worried tone.

"No," Jazz chuckled. "It just means that you will be judged for only the amount of time that you've been around," she answered. "Besides, even the kids that haven't been good get something," she reassured the girl.

"Really?" Danielle asked in a much more soothed tone. "Like what?"

"Coal," Jazz responded in a simple one word answer, making Danielle gulp nervously. "Lumps and lumps of coal, but I'm sure you've been good enough for the short amount of time you've been around to receive something good from ol' Saint Nick," she reassured the girl as she ruffled her hair as it air dried.

"But wait; that still doesn't explain how he manages to visit millions and millions of homes in a single night, delivering countless numbers of toys and coal to all of the children in the world," Danielle wondered. "And how does he pack all of these things into a slay that is pulled by flying reindeer?" she added.

"Well you manage to pack away more food than you should be capable of eating," Jazz retaliated. "Such a dilemma would be no problem for a pro like Santa; he's been doing this for hundreds of years; he knows how to get the job done."

"Ok, well how come he only delivers toys to kids and not adults?" Danielle's next question came.

"I think we'll let Danny answer that one later," Jazz said nervously. "Anything else you wanna know?"

"Yeah, how does he determine out of the billions of kids in this world which ones are good and which are bad?" Danielle asked curiously. This question caught Jazz's attention. She smirked as she cooked up an answer.

"The explanation to this one is intriguing," Jazz said with a wide grin. "And not very many people really know for sure, but I'm one of the few that does."

"Well let's hear it then," Danielle said as she grew impatient.

"Santa has many elves working for him," Jazz started to explain. "Only about half of them make toys, the other half work as spies, keeping an eye on the youngsters of this world. They set up spy cameras all over the world, and they watch your every movement."

"So Christmas is like some kind of world-wide conspiracy?" Danielle asked with a cocked eyebrow. "That sounds kinda cheesy to me."

"Nah, no conspiracy," Jazz laughed nervously. "When December rolls around the spy elves collect their cameras and review them for Santa. That's how they figure out what kids want for Christmas and whether they've been good or bad."

"But I thought Santa found out what you wanted because you wrote letters to him?" Danielle wondered curiously.

"Well they do," Jazz reassured the girl. "But the postal service loses most of the mail and letters to be delivered to the North Pole. Besides, the mailmen hate having to hike through all that snow just to get there. That's why a lot of people don't like working for the post."

"So to make up for all of the mail that gets lost, Santa has his elves set up the cameras so he can figure out what kids want," Danielle realized. She smiled when she made this realization. "Wow, this really has been informative."

"That's what I'm here for, to inform and entertain," Jazz said with a smile before she kissed the girl on the forehead. "There's still a lot for you to learn, but that'll have to wait for another day; now go and get dressed, we've got a long day ahead of us."

* * *

Meanwhile, far away, somewhere near the North Pole, a heavy blizzard roared outside of an ice covered cave that went underground. Deep within the cave a large man sat at a desk in a small room as he went through piles upon piles of neatly organized manila folders. He worked tirelessly as the door opened and a small person no more than two feet tall entered the room.

"Hey boss," the little person said as he approached the desk that stood at least five heads taller than him. "We've got a problem," he said as he pulled out a video tape. The large man behind the desk looked up from his work to reveal dark circles under his eyes. "The Fenton Girl…she's onto us."

* * *

Jazz and Danielle had finished their bonding moment and went downstairs after Danielle had gotten dressed and tied up her hair into her signature pony tail. They went into the kitchen and joined Danny who was already eating breakfast. "You're up?" Jazz asked as if surprised. "This early?"

"You're still acting like a fink?" Danny asked in the same tone to mock his older sister.

Jazz's eyebrows lowered angrily as she prepared to scold him, but Danielle beat her to the punch. "You'd better be careful what you say Danny," the girl informed him. "Santa might find out and give you coal for Christmas," she warned him.

"I'll keep that in mind," Danny grumbled as he took a bite of cereal and Danielle walked away towards the fridge. "So, you told her about Santa?" he asked his older sister as she sat at the table.

"Yup, all the ins and out of jolly ol' Saint Nick," Jazz replied with a smile.

Over at the fridge, Danielle peered inside and looked around as she removed a half gallon of milk. She examined the contents suspiciously before closing the door. She looked around the room and noticed a cookie jar on the counter shaped like Santa. She smiled with a wide grin as she reached for the ceramic jar and quickly opened the lid only to find it empty. "Hmm," she huffed before she closed the jar and went back to the table.

"Now it's your turn to warn her about mom and dad's annual squabble before she experiences it first hand," Jazz added to her conversation with Danny.

"You're leaving that task to me?" Danny growled. "What did I do to deserve this?" he asked himself as he rolled his eyes.

"Perhaps a happier conscious if you elaborate a little more on what I should know about the holidays," Danielle spoke up in as sweet a girlish tone as she could muster for being a tomboy.

This broke him down and he spent the next half hour explaining why he wasn't such a huge fan of the holiday just around the monthly corner. He and Jazz took turns explaining to the girl about their parents annual Christmas fights that revolved mostly around the existence of Santa. Danielle didn't seem that surprised; after all, her aunt and uncle had been in numerous minor squabbles during her time in their household.

"So their constant fighting has had such an impact on you, you developed a hatred towards the holiday?" the girl asked before taking a long gulp of milk from a glass. "Perhaps you could have sought counseling or something," she suggested.

"I guess I did in some form or another," Danny answered her matter-of-factly. "Cause you see, last year I had a run-in with the Ghost Writer. He got me to open my mind a little more by trapping me in a Christmas poem," he explained. "Everyone was stuck talking in rhyme, of course no one but me remembers," he grumbled. "Anyway; I've learned to enjoy the holiday a bit more rather than being a grump the whole time."

"And we enjoy having you in a good mood during this time of the year for a change little brother," Jazz said with a smirk before the sound of the front door opening caught their attention.

They all rushed into the living room as Maddie and Jack fumbled trying to bring something into the house, a large pine tree with snow still stuck to the needles. They struggled to pull it into the middle of the room before managing to set it upright on a metal stand that kept it standing. "Well kids, what do you think?" Jack said triumphantly as he introduced them to the tree that stood as tall as he did, almost as if it were a new person he was about to show around the house.

The three kids approached the tree and looked it up and down. Besides the snow which was currently melting all over the floor; one thing just didn't belong on the tree, or in the tree for that matter. A small wooden birdhouse was nailed to one of the branches, and sitting on the branch was a little blue bird that pecked at its wing when it wasn't observing its new human neighbors.

"Ok, I'll be the one to ask it," Jazz mentioned when the two Danny's said nothing. "Why is there a bird house in the tree?" she asked curiously.

"Ugh, that's an ornament," Jack answered nervously before the little blue bird landed on his head and pecked at him ferociously before flying out an open window.

Danielle sniffed the air for something that intrigued her. "Do I smell gun powder?" she asked.

"Let's just say your father refused to pay for the tree," Maddie sufficed to say.

"You stole it from Old man Peabody didn't you?" Danny asked accusingly as he folded his arms. "You guys do this every year!" he scolded his own parents.

"What?" Danielle asked. "Bring a tree into the house? It just doesn't sound very right. Are you guys alright?" she asked her aunt and uncle. "This isn't normal behavior, even for you two."

"Uhh, Danielle, we're not the only family that brings trees into their homes," Jazz reassured the little girl with a smile. "Almost everybody else does too."

"Everybody brings a pine tree into the house during Christmas so they can keep presents underneath it until it's time for them to be opened," Danny informed her. "It's another one of those holiday traditions that you're so fond of."

"Speaking of traditions," Jack spoke up. "We need to get this guy decorated pronto," he informed the kids.

"We have to decorate it!?" Danielle asked in shock. "I'll never understand this world," she sighed.

Jazz took the time to explain to Danielle that it was customary to decorate the tree with lights and ornaments such as glass bulbs, tinsel and other little doohickeys because that's how it's been done for years. While she was doing this; Danny helped his parents get all of the tree ornaments out of storage.

By the time they had everything ready, Danielle had been given the full scoop. She was even offered the opportunity to be the first to place an ornament on the tree; a task that took her over half an hour due to trying to find the most perfect spot on the bear tree. But in the end their efforts had paid off for they had a beautifully decorated tree.

"Alright kids, the ornaments are ornamenting, the tinsel is tinseling, now for the lighting," Jack said triumphantly as he clapped his hands together. "Go plug em' in!"

Danny picked up the power cord and positioned himself over a surge protector that was plugged into the nearby wall. While he did this, Jazz went over to Danielle and placed a firm hand on her shoulder. "This is one of those special, traditional parts of Christmas that I look forward to every single year," she informed the girl.

"Oh really?" Danielle asked as she looked up at her older cousin. "What part is that?" Then to answer her question, Danny plugged the electrical cord into the surge protector. Every single light on the tree began to glow brilliantly. "Oh wow!" Danielle gasped in amazement at the sight of the tree.

Then suddenly, 'POP!' all of the lights, not only on the tree, but throughout the house, suddenly went out leaving them all in pitch blackness with the exception of their eyes.

"Ahh, the annual blowing out of the neighborhood power grid," Jazz is heard saying through the darkness.

* * *

It was about an hour before the electrical company finally got the power back up and running. The house lights had come back on and the tree glowed with a thousand brilliant colorful lights. It was at this time that Maddie decided would be a good time to bake some cookies, with Jazz's help of course. The last time someone; namely Jack; made Christmas cookies they ended up coming alive. So Jazz and Danny agreed to supervise from now on.

While they did this, Jack snuck outside and got out one of several boxes of fudge he had been hiding in the RV. He came back inside only to be caught by their young houseguest who gave him a scolding look and folded her arms. "Oh, Danielle," he said nervously. "I was just…you know," he sputtered as he tried to think of an excuse.

"Keeping fudge away from the rest of us?" Danielle asked impatiently as she tapped her foot impatiently. "Aunt Maddie would be mad if she found out, but perhaps I could be tempted to keep quiet," she said.

Her offer was tempting; she was blackmailing Jack into letting her eat fudge. "Deal," he replied to her offer before he rushed over to the living room couch. With the newly opened box of fudge sitting on the coffee table in front of them they began to talk. "Now Danielle, if your Aunt Maddie asks…" he reminded her.

"It's sugar free," Danielle finished with a cheerful smile.

"Good girl," Jack said as he gave her yet another piece of fudge. He took a bite from his own piece before he continued. "You know Danielle, there are gunna be some people out there that will try to convince you that Santa Claus is just a myth; that he doesn't exist," he said in a whisper. "Well they're lying," he said more prominently.

"And you have proof of this concept?" Danielle asked as she chomped down on another piece of fudge.

"Cause I've seen him with my own two eyes," he said, lowering his voice into a whisper as he pointed his fingers into his eyes.

"Oh wow! Really?" Danielle asked in amazement. "What's he like?"

It was at this point that Danny and Jazz decided to come back out into the living room after having gotten the cookies into the oven so they could bake. They had made themselves lunch, soup for that matter, and decided to eat it in the living room to pass time.

"He's as big as they say he is," Jack answered the girl's question with a smile. "You could say, he's been my idol ever since," he explained. "That year, he gave me what I wanted most for Christmas; a toy plane. He also gave me a big ol' box of fudge, lots and lots of fudge," he said as if going into a dream-like state. "Which is how I became addicted to the stuff in the first place," he said much more enthusiastically.

Danielle couldn't help but to laugh at her Uncle Jack's tale, and to her relief he laughed along with her. "Wow, that's a really great story dad," she said, not fully aware of her words.

Danny and Jazz spat mouthfuls of scolding hot soup out of their mouths like fire hoses while at the same time Jack suddenly began choking on a piece of fudge that had gotten lodged in his throat. He managed to get it un-lodged and looked at the girl in confusion. "What was that?" he sputtered as he regained his breath.

"Oh, sorry Uncle Jack," Danielle said when she realized what she had said only moments before. "That kinda slipped out by accident," she said in a hushed whisper, but all could hear and the damage had been done.

Danny and Jazz exchanged shocked expressions before Jack burst out into laughter. "That's alright Dani!" he bellowed. "No harm, no foul," he reassured the girl, to which she sighed with relief.

* * *

Such a close mishap on Danielle's part wouldn't be her last that weekend. At some point in the middle of the night Danielle's stomach began to growl; waking her from a descent slumber. "Ugh," she groaned as she rolled over in bed so she lay on her back. She leaned up and patted her stomach as it continued growling. "You couldn't have bothered me before I went to bed?" she asked of it. She went silent as if waiting for a response when her stomach growled again. "Alright fine," she gave in as she rolled out of her bed. "But only a small snack, I don't wanna ruin my breakfast."

Her bedroom door opened silently and out poked the raven black haired girl's head. She looked around cautiously before slowly making her way out into the hallway. She didn't want to risk waking anybody so she left all of the lights off, using touch and sound to find her way around.

She passed by a foggy window and wiped the condensation off before peering out and watched as snow lightly fell from the sky and drifted over Amity Park. The street lights just outside the window shined little light into the house, lighting up a three foot long section of the hallway, but leaving all the rest in pitch black.

Danielle continued on through the darkness and eventually felt the wooden doorframe of an open room that she assumed was the kitchen. Unable to see anything, she closed her eyes and concentrated, listening to the sounds coming from the room.

The sound of someone snoring peacefully in their sleep. A heavy inhalation before the unsettling sound of a very bothersome snore that could easily have woken even the girl from a heavy sleep.

Danielle chuckled to herself silently. "Uncle Jack must have fallen asleep at the kitchen table again with another unfinished invention in his lap," she figured with a whisper.

She held out her arms and decided to feel her way around from this point on, feeling confident that she had found her way to the kitchen, although she should have taken her half-asleep condition into account when she made this decision.

Her finger tips made contact with something soft, the table cloth perhaps? "There were plenty of leftovers from dinner," Danielle reminded herself in a whisper as she felt something a bit more solid. "Hmm, an olive?" she asked herself as she grabbed a small round object and moved it around in her fingers. "Hee, Aunt Maddie really should have put this in the fridge," she wondered. "Oh well, warm food is still food," she figured with a shrug of her shoulders.

She put the 'olive' in her mouth and bit down hard on it, only to realize that the top half of the 'olive' was hard and smooth. "OUCH!" someone suddenly called out in pain. Before Danielle realized what had happened the lights came on to reveal she indeed was not in the kitchen, but rather a bedroom. Danny's for that matter.

Danielle's eyes went wide before she slowly looked up at him with his big toe still in her mouth. He cocked an eyebrow at her and seemed on the borderline of shock, confusion and anger. "Ok," he said in a stern tone as he folded his arms. "I'm going to greatly assume that there is a logical explanation for why you're in my room in the middle of the night with one of my toes in your mouth."

It was at this point that Danielle finally released his toe from her teeth's vice-like grip. "I feel so embarrassed," she whispered to herself as she began to blush beat red.

* * *

This would not be the end of Danielle's embarrassing moments this weekend. The next morning Danielle was in the real kitchen eating real food at the real kitchen table. She had chosen to eat cheerios because of the large box they had to buy. The reason? When Danny came into the kitchen to confront her, she tried to hide behind it, it didn't work however.

He didn't confront her right away; he wanted to give her time to come out of hiding on her own. He poured his own cereal and began eating on the other side of the table, an awkward silence between them indicating that something weird had happened. Eventually the silence was broken when Danielle slowly moved her cereal box to the side and peaked around the side to see Danny eating as if nothing had happened.

"Danny?" she asked in a low voice just loud enough for him to hear her. "Can we talk?" she asked nervously.

Danny didn't reply. He put his spoon in his bowl before pushing it away. He put his arms on the table and leaned on them as he intertwined his fingers. He looked at her with an expressionless face, but he was listening. He wanted to know the reason behind her actions.

"Alright," she said as she shoved her cereal box away so they could look directly at each other. "You know how I'm always hungry and can't really seem to fill myself?" she asked him.

Danny remained silent for a moment. "Perhaps," he said in monotone, his expressionless face not changing.

"Well I was really sleepy last night and my stomach was growling," she explained. "I thought I was in the kitchen and I thought I was eating an olive that was left over from last night's dinner," she explained sheepishly.

"An olive?" Danny asked; his tone and expression still not changing. "I guess it's not the worst thing that could have happened," he figured as he shrugged his shoulders. Still his expression did not change and his arms remained stationary on the table with his fingers intertwined.

"Like what?" Danielle asked in a very worried tone. She seemed quite scared of the possibility of there being worse things she could have done to him in the middle of the night.

"Can't really say," he began to explain, still nothing about him changed. "It has to do with something that you could never comprehend conflicting with something that you could never understand, especially at such a young age. When you start dating, you'll figure it out," he informed her, to which she swallowed with a loud and nervous gulp.

Jazz suddenly came rushing into the kitchen finally breaking Danny out of his Ben Stein-like trance. "Hey you guys! It's snowing outside again!" she shouted with excitement. "I'm going out to catch snowflakes on my tongue; wanna join me?" she asked them.

"Yes please!" Danielle groaned loudly as she dropped out of her chair and walked out of the room, leaving a disgruntled Danny and a confused Jazz behind.

"Did I miss something?" Jazz asked her brother.

"I think it's best that you don't know this time," Danny inquired as he walked by her.

Outside in the cold December air, snow drifted down with the breeze. One individual snowflake drifted down in front of a pair of baby blue eyes that followed it down onto a heavy blue sweater sleeve. The view zoomed out as the young girl examined her sleeve. "Are they really that small?" she asked curiously.

She was dressed in her usual blue sweater but had traded her red shorts for sweats and her shoes for snow boots. Danny and Jazz were dressed warmly too; Jazz in her violet sweater and Danny in his red sweater.

"Yup, and believe it or not, not a single one of them is alike," Jazz informed her.

"That's not possible," Danielle scoffed. "If they're this small, it must take trillions upon trillions to make up all the snow not only across town, but across the globe."

"It's just a myth Jazz," Danny reminded his older sister. "You wanna know something fun to do with the snow that I'll bet you haven't tried yet," he inquired to his younger cousin. "You'll love it; it involves your mouth," he teased her, only making her blush.

He stuck out his tongue and waited until a single snowflake landed on it, melting into water and disappearing before all eyes to see. Jazz stuck out her tongue and the same thing happened, the snow melted and disappeared. Finally Danielle stuck out her tongue and waited until a snowflake landed on her tongue. A sudden cold sensation sent shivers down her spine. "Whoa! That's cold."

"Well of course it is; it's snow," Danny reminded her with a scowl. "It's basically ice, so it's a great way to quench thirst if you're thirsty," he added before he stuck out his tongue and caught more snowflakes.

"But you'll want to avoid any snow that's not white," Jazz warned. "Stay clear of yellow, brown or even blackened snow," she advised. "It wouldn't taste good and it's bad for your health."

"I bet I could eat more than either of you," Danny suddenly challenged the two girls with a sinister grin.

"I'll take that challenge," Jazz half yelled in acceptance. She got in Danny's face and they began growling at each other.

They were suddenly pushed apart as Danielle got between them. "What makes the two of you think you're going to win this contest?" she asked them. "We all know my stomach holds more than either of you combined," she mocked them.

"Bring it on then Shorty," Danny mocked her.

A short time later, the three children came back inside to the sweet scent of freshly baked goods. They went into the kitchen and found a platter of cookies, fudge, several small cakes and mini muffins waiting for them.

"Wow mom, did you make all of these yourself?" Jazz asked curiously as she grabbed a cookie and examined it.

"Yup," Maddie responded. "I followed the directions in the cookbook down to the punctuation marks."

"You didn't bring anything to life," Danny observed. "I'm impressed," he said before popping a cookie into his mouth.

"It's all sugar free, so Danielle is allowed to eat as much as she wants," Maddie informed them. "Although hopefully it doesn't all disappear before the weekend is over," she worried.

"Common Danielle," Jazz said as she chomped down on a cookie. "They're pretty good, you should try one," she suggested.

"No thank you," Danielle said in a sickly tone. Her tongue stuck out and her hands rested on her bulging stomach. "I think I'm going to be sick," she groaned. "I think I ate too much snow."

"Well, you're the one that cheated and ate snow off the ground," Jazz scoffed her.

"You guys said, "whoever could eat more snow" would win," Danielle complained.

"Yeah, by catching it on their tongues," Danny reminded her as he chewed happily. Danielle scowled at him before the scene faded away.

* * *

The weekend came to a close without anymore close mishaps. Luckily for every kid in town, school's closed again that Monday, only this time it was halfway through the school day. Snow fell heavily all around town as Casper High students gathered into a crowd outside the school.

Danny and Tucker watched from the school's stoop as Dash gave the nerd Mickey an atomic wedgie while the other jocks cheered on with joy. "He's a sadistic nut," Tucker said to Danny as he pointed over his shoulder at the school bully.

"At least he doesn't bother us anymore," Danny suggested as yet another upside to him revealing his ghostly alter ego.

The two boys turned around when they heard the door to the school opening, shortly followed by the incoherent babbling of three girls; Sam, Jazz and Valerie; all finally getting out at the same time.

The three girls chattered away before they noticed the two boys looking at them. Then their attention was brought to Mickey as Dash tied him to a flagpole by his underpants and pulled him up to the top as jocks laughed at his misfortune.

"So glad I got out of that social circle," Valerie growled under her breath so only the other four could hear her.

"Danny; do something," Sam said to him; not as a demand, but more as a concerned request.

"I guess I should," Danny figured. A ring of light appeared around his waist and he was about to transform and jump in to break up the mob, but someone else seemed to have intervened first.

Dash stopped laughing at Mickey's misery and suddenly looked stupefied. The five teens noticed this; Danny halted his rescue mission and allowed the blue ring of light to disappear. Dash's eyes began glowing green as something overcame him; or, overshadowed him.

"Ohh!" he said in a high pitched voice before he looked out at the crowd. "Hi! I'm Dash Baxter!" he said to the crowd in his normal voice. "I'm a complete moron with absolutely no respect for anyone or anything," he said with a curtsy. Many of the surrounding students laughed at his antics, but it didn't end with Dash feeling embarrassed. He ran up to the flag pole and pointed at it with his thumb. "Hey, frost!" he said with delight before he stuck out his tongue and licked the cold metal.

He suddenly look dumbstruck once again as his eyes faded back to blue on his face as it transversed between confusion, shock and horrorstruck. "ELP!" he called out as his arms flailed about, but nobody was paying attention. They were all too busy laughing at him. Even Mickey was pointing and laughing from high above on the flag pole. "By toug's duck to 'is ol!" he wailed.

"Huh," Danny said as he scratched his head in confusion. "That was cool and demeaning to Dash at the same time; but who did that?" he asked no one in particular.

"You mean that wasn't you?" Valerie asked. "I thought you had just overshadowed him from a distance," she wondered.

"Wait a minute," Sam pondered out loud. "The last time we thought Danny did that, it was really Danielle," she remembered back to the end of the previous school year.

Tucker suddenly spoke up. "Nah, Dani wouldn't do that," he scoffed. "She's such a sweet little angle," he declared.

"Tucker, are you alright?" Valerie asked him in a concerned tone as she cocked an eyebrow. His eyes were apparently glowing a bright green, much like Dash's were just moments before.

"DANI!" Danny, Sam and Jazz all growled. The ghost girl phased her head through Tucker's chest before she flew out of him and landed on the concrete between them, still in her ghost form.

Upon being released from her grip, Tucker shook his head and came back to reality. "I hated it when Danny did that, and I really hate it when she does that," he grumbled as he adjusted his beret.

"Oh great, the middle school got out too?" Sam huffed angrily.

"The superintendant is in charge of both schools," Jazz reminded her. "If he declares a school closed, they both close."

"They should've made an exception in her case," Sam grumbled under her breath.

"Why didn't you go home after school was canceled?" Danny asked the younger girl.

"Am I required to?" Dani asked in a cocky tone as she put her hands on hers hips and transformed back into her human form, complete with red sweats and her blue sweater and red beanie. "Because the last that I knew I wasn't restricted to Jr. High and home."

"Well you're certainly allowed to visit us, especially on days like today," Jazz said happily as she placed a hand on the girl's shoulder. Jazz led her off the stoop with the other following behind.

The crowd had since dispersed, leaving Dash alone with his tongue still stuck to the frozen flag pole. "Ello! Thomone! Amyone! Elp!" Dash called out desperately before the sound of something ripping is heard only to be followed by Mickey falling to the ground after his underpants ripped.

* * *

The five teens and the preteen wanted to eat lunch at the Nasty Burger, but their resident NB employee, Valerie, informed them that the weather had probably prevented them from opening so that wasn't an option for them. They decided to take a walk through the park while they contemplated where to eat and what to do with their day.

While the five teens did this, Danielle ran ahead and chased a couple squirrels through the snow. She dove into a pile of snow to chase after them as they dug out of sight. She stuck her head out of the snow and blinked snow out of her eyes as the five teens walked by in the background.

It was snowing heavily; the wind wasn't blowing thankfully, but the snow was so thick they could barely see five feet ahead of themselves.

"We've got plenty of food over at my place," Sam suggested to the others.

"I don't think your parents would appreciate you bring all of us by for lunch," Valerie figured.

"Alright, then how about we all come over to YOUR house," Sam snapped back in frustration, despite knowing that Valerie was probably right about her parents disapproving of such an act.

"Are you kidding me?" Valerie growled angrily. "My house is even smaller than Fenton's," she half yelled as she pointed her thumb at Danny.

"HEY!" Danny and Jazz yelled in retaliation.

"Oh, sorry," Valerie apologized sincerely.

"Well what about your guy's house?" Tucker asked the two Fenton children. "Danny said your mom made a whole platter of snacks the other day without bringing anything to life," he added as he began to drool a little from anticipation.

"Actually I think Danielle ate it all before school started this morning," Jazz said reluctantly, as she scratched the back of her head.

"Speaking of Danielle, where did she run off to?" Danny asked as he suddenly began looking around for his cloned cousin. "I can't see anything in all of this snow," he complained. His eyes began glowing bright blue as he built up freezing energy in his hands. He spun in a circle and the air suddenly cleared as the snow stopped falling in the park. "Ahh, that's better," he declared with a sigh of relief.

"Don't let the city catch you doing that," Tucker warned him. "With that kind of power you could put an end to snow days," he said, sending shivers down all but Jazz's spine who just glared at them.

Suddenly a snowball came flying out of nowhere and smacked Valerie in the face. "HEY!" she yelled. "Who threw that!?" she asked angrily. No one answered but another snowball flew over a nearby leafless tree and went straight for Sam. Valerie put up her arms to block the snowball, but it did no good since it wasn't aimed at her.

Sam closed her eyes and didn't even try to dodge as the snowball smacked her in the face. She glared in the direction the snowball came in. "I think Danielle is asking for a beating," she snarled.

"Danielle! Are you throwing snowballs!?" Jazz called out into the winter wonderland.

Danielle poked her head out of another pile of snow directly under the tree that the second snowball flew over. "No," she replied. "I'm trying to make an igloo."

Danny and Jazz glanced at each other before they sighed and strolled off towards the girl, leaving Sam and Valerie to wipe the snow off their faces while Tucker chuckled to himself.

Danny and Jazz stomped through the snow and stood over Danielle as she compacted snow into a hardened wall and only one wall, positioned between herself and the others. "This doesn't look like an igloo I've ever seen," Danny observed as Danielle patted the snow down.

"It looks more like…" Jazz started to say before a sudden realization overcame her. "A snowball barrier," she said in a sinister tone. "Are you planning something?" she asked.

"Maybe," Danielle taunted them as she added more snow to the barrier and patted it down.

"Who taught you how to make one of these?" Danny asked as he knocked on it and it didn't fall apart. "It's really sturdy; well built; it could take one heck of a barrage."

"Two of my friends from school," Danielle answered. "They've been living here for awhile so they've had experience," she informed her older cousins.

"Well by the rules of snowballing, you can't declare war on another until after they throw a retaliation snowball," Jazz informed the girl. "And so far, none of them are about to throw anything over here," she added as she looked back at the other three.

"You also need a stash of ammo waiting," Danny informed her. "You can't just make snowballs by hand on the spot; you've gotta have dozens made. So…" he said as he looked around. "Where are they?" he asked her.

"I've got guys to do that for me," Danielle said smugly, confusing both Danny and Jazz. Danielle looked up into the tree and clicked her tongue. The two squirrels she had been chasing appeared on a branch. They saluted in understanding before they quickly rolled up a snowball and dropped it from the tree right into Danielle's waiting hand. She took aim and threw the snowball as far and as hard as she could.

Tucker stopped laughing only long enough to realize he was the next target in Danielle's path. The snowball exploded on contact with his face. He growled in anger as Sam and Valerie chuckled at him.

"Hey!" he said with a scowl at the two girls. He packed together his own snowball and held it up. "Take this!" he yelled as he wound his arm back.

"Tucker, NO!" Sam and Valerie yelled in warning, but it was too late. He threw the snowball with all the force he could muster.

The snowball flew through the air and missed all three Fenton's, landing in the snow at Danielle's feet. She looked up from the impact site at her feet and smirked.

"GASP!" Danny gasped as he pointed towards his three friends. "Tucker returned fire!" he yelled.

Jazz smirked and raised her arm into the air. "Then its war!" she declared loudly for all to hear.

"Wait!" Tucker yelled in shock. He appeared disturbed as he looked from one hand to the other. "I d-didn't-" he stuttered. "I-I can explain!" he wailed desperately.

Neither Danny, Danielle or Jazz listened; they ducked behind the barrier Danielle had built and with a now large stash of snowballs, courtesy of the two squirrels, they were ready to strike. "FIRE!" Danny called out before he and the two girls began tossing a barrage of snowballs at the other three.

"TAKE COVER!" Sam yelled before she and Valerie dove behind trees, effectively dodging the barrage. Tucker wasn't so lucky; he closed his eyes and extended out his arms to protect his face as the snowballs pummeled him and eventually encased him in a snowy tomb.

Snow fell away from Tucker's head to reveal a pair of foggy glasses in front of a pair of eyes that scowled in frustration. "They are in for a world of hurt," he declared, his voice muffled from the snow covering his mouth, and the rest of his body. He managed to stumble his way out of his snow man suit and dove behind Sam's tree and hid with her as another barrage of snowballs pummeled their cover. "Alright, anybody got a plan?" he asked the two girls.

"I say, if they want a snowball fight-" Valerie said before she packed together a snowball and held it up. "We give them one," she finished with a grin as she tossed the snowball up and down in her hand. Sam and Tucker grinned in agreement. "Alright, Sam will sneak around and take them from behind, using the snow banks for cover while Tucker and I return fire and barrage them with as many snowballs as we can. When Sam is in place, we halt our attack and when they think we're tired out, Sam gets them from behind," Valerie laid out their plan.

"On my way," Sam saluted before she grabbed Tucker's beret. He reached out to grab it back but she pulled it away from him. "I'll need this," she informed him before she snuck off and disappeared behind a snow bank.

Tucker huffed before he opened his book-bag and removed another beret before plopping it onto his head, effectively covering his short black hair from view. "Alright, we need snowballs and lots of them," he advised Valerie, who already had a small stash at her disposal. "How'd you make those so fast?" he asked her as a small barrage of more snowballs pelted the ground between their two hiding places.

"I know a few tricks," Valerie taunted him. She stuck her fingers into the snow and curled them before bringing her hand out of the snow, pulling a rounded snowball up with it. She tossed it to him and held up a pre-made snowball. "Just use that trick and you'll have access to instant snowballs, giving us an advantage over those squirrels their using," she advised him.

Elsewhere, Sam gathered snowballs and stored them in Tucker's beret as she snuck around the battle site to sneak up on the others. "Let's see them predict this move," she snickered before she continued on around another snow drift and disappeared from view.

Back with Danny, Danielle and Jazz; Danielle threw one more snowball over the barrier before she turned around and squatted with the other two. "They aren't returning fire," she stated the obvious in confusion. "What gives!?" she asked angrily.

"Maybe they don't want to fight," Danny figured as he looked over the barrier at the two trees the other three had taken refuge behind.

"No," Jazz said as she and Danielle stuck their heads over the barrier as well. "If I know Sam and Valerie, they're not going down without fights. They're planning something," she warned them as she squinted her eyes in suspicion.

Suddenly a barrage of snowballs began falling around them. "They're retaliating!" Danielle shouted. She ducked, missing a snowball that whizzed right over her head and impacted the ground behind their barricade.

Danny and Jazz followed suit as the three of them sought shelter behind the barricade which was just tall enough to block the snowballs from hitting them directly. They covered their heads and waited for the barrage to stop.

When it did, Danny wasted no time in jumping up and pointing towards the two trees, making Valerie and Tucker duck for safety. "Fire away!" he ordered as he pointed in their direction.

"We can't," Danielle answered; the view never changing away from Danny's heroic stance as he pointed into the wind.

"Huh?" he asked in slight shock. He ducked back down out of view and sat with his back against the barrier. "Why not?" he asked in almost a whisper.

"It's Chatters and Nutty," Danielle answered. "They've worn themselves out," she said, indicating the two squirrels as they panted vigorously on the ground at her side. "They've run out of steam; our snowball production has come to an end," she announced sadly.

"You've named the squirrels?" Jazz asked, getting off topic from the snowball fight.

"Can't we just make them by hand?" Danny asked as he shrugged his shoulders.

"We can make them by hand?" Danielle asked in confusion as she cocked an eyebrow. Danny rolled together a snowball as proof of concept. "I didn't realize that was a possibility!" Danielle said in shock.

They rolled together about a dozen snowballs and prepared to fire upon the enemy, but Jazz remained focused on something behind them. "Uhh, guys," she whimpered as she tugged on their coats. "We've got a problem."

"What?" Danny asked as he and Danielle turned around with snowballs in hand. Looks of panic spread across their faces and they dropped their balled up attacks. Sam stood behind them with a sinister smile as she tossed a freshly made snowball up and down in her hand. Tucker's beret was swung over her shoulder like Santa's toy sack, only it supplied Sam with a nearly endless supply of snowballs.

"RUN!" Jazz screamed. "TAKE EVASIVE ACTION!" She, both Danny's and both squirrels jumped over their barrier and skidded to stops when they noticed Tucker and Valerie blocking their escape path; like Sam they were tossing snowballs into the air as they smirked at their adversaries. "IT'S A TRAP!" Jazz screamed in terror.

Danny and Dani gasped before they prepared for impact and instinctively became intangible just as the barrage of snowballs began. They avoided the attack and so did the squirrels due to their size; they still took the same stances as Danny and Danielle by covering their heads.

By the time the attack had seized, Jazz was covered from head to toe in snow, much like Tucker was only minutes before; only her anger and frustration seemed to melt most of it away. "I hate you," she growled through barred teeth. "I hate you all," she sneered.

The snowball fight continued in this manner for quite some time; teens taking cover while the other team barraged them with snowballs before the tides were turned. It soon became a free-for-all, in which everybody was an enemy and it was every man/girl for themselves with the exception of the squirrels who had teamed up with Danielle, although they did little help anymore as snowball makers.

Snowballs were thrown into faces, huge loads of snow were dumped on heads and down coats, namely Tucker's courtesy of just about everybody else.

Danielle was violently pushed into the snow, namely by Sam and Tucker for obvious reasons only unseen by Danny for yet more obvious reasons.

Sam was used as a human shield by Jazz when she had a barrage of snowballs chucked at her, much to Sam's displeasure.

Finally, after nearly three and a half hours, all six battlers not including the squirrels which were still by Danielle side, lay on their backs in the snow, forming a large circle as they tried to catch their breaths.

"We've got to do this again sometime," Danielle managed to pant as her breath escaped from her mouth in short wisps due to the cold and not the presence of a nearby ghost because everybody else's breath could be seen as well. The two squirrels chattered in agreement with her statement.

"I haven't been in a snow war like that in…oh…four, maybe five years?" Jazz asked no one in particular, but mostly to herself.

Danny counted off on his fingers. "Fourteen…Thirteen…Twelve…" he muttered to himself. "Yup, five years," he confirmed his sister's statement. "I was ten and you were twelve."

"Wow, I'm impressed," Valerie said with a chuckle.

"Why's that?" Danielle asked as she rolled onto her stomach so she could see the heads of everybody else. "That it's been so long since you guys did this?"

"No, that Danny actually did math," Valerie confirmed with laughter; the others with the exception of Danny all joined in.

Danny looked up from his position to scowl at them but sighed in defeat. "We should probably get going guys," he said as he sat up. "I'm starving which means Danielle is running on fumes and we need to get warm before Tucker's hands freeze," he said as he looked at his friends hands.

"Well maybe if SOMEONE-" he half yelled as he looked at Sam, "Didn't make me lose my gloves in the snow I wouldn't be suffering from frostbite," he complained.

"Our place is closest," Jazz stated as she rolled over and pushed herself onto her feet. "We can get warm and get something to eat; that's what we were planning on doing before a war broke out between us anyway," she reminded them as she dusted snow off her jacket.

She led them trudging through the snow like a group of Eskimos. Danny may have cleared the park from the blizzard that was ravaging town, but as soon as they left the park they were hit with a wall of snow that almost seemed impassible. It took them nearly half an hour to trudge their way the next few blocks to Fenton-Works.

Finally the front door was opened and Danny and Jazz were the first to stumble through and into the heated room. "Finally, I can defrost," Jazz sighed with relief as Sam, Tucker and Valerie stumbled into the house.

"Mom! Dad!" Danny called out to his parents. "We're home!"

Jack and Maddie walked into the room from the kitchen with sullen looks on their faces. Jack cleared his throat with a grumbling cough. "Ugh, kids, we need to have a talk," he said nervously.

Sam, Tucker and Valerie took seats while Danny and Jazz stood in the open doorway, waiting for Danielle to catch up with them. "What's up?" Danny asked as he put his hands into his coat pockets.

"Well, someone came by here about an hour ago," Maddie said in a slow and quiet voice. "He needed a place to stay…"

"Yeah?" Danny and Jazz asked for her to continue.

"Well, with the Christmas season fast approaching, being the time of forgiving and-" Maddie continued to say before Jazz interrupted her.

"Mom," Jazz said as she held up her hand to stop her mother from talking. "Will you please just get to the point?" she requested as she lowered her hands back to her side.

"Well, we have another guest," Jack answered for his wife. "We decided to let him stay in the Op-center's spare bedroom. Normally we wouldn't have let him stay, but he's not that bitter and doesn't seem too angered with us; so we let him stay until he could pull his life back together."

"You can come downstairs now!" Maddie called upstairs.

With confused expressions; everyone looked towards the stairs, wondering who on Earth Maddie could have been talking to. Then a pair of small black boots appeared on the top step before they slowly descended the stairs, revealing a pair of black pants which eventually turned into a black suit.

"No way!" Sam and Tucker said in shock. Jazz gasped while Danny and Valerie growled at the sight of their new houseguest like wild animals as they barred their teeth in anger.

Eventually the older man with graying hair pulled back into a ponytail and a squared jaw descended the last step, entering the room. "Ahh, Daniel," said the drawling voice of Vlad Masters. "We meet…again," he said with a sinister smile. The scene ended with Danny growling at the man while Jazz stood next to him in complete shock.


	3. Part 2

"What is going on here!?" Danny demanded to know as a mixture of anger, rage and fear built up on his insides. "What's he doing here!?" he spat.

To everyone's surprise, Vlad just smiled. "Well I suppose I should tell my tale of survival," Vlad said as he rubbed his fingers on his suit and looked at them before the sound of footsteps was heard coming from outside. He looked up from his fingers with surprise as Danielle finally entered the house from the bitter cold.

"Hey you guys, look who followed me home," she laughed in a playful tone as she scratched the head of one of the two squirrels sitting on her shoulder. "They don't seem to want to leave my side." She looked up from the squirrels and saw Vlad standing in the middle of the room in front of Danny and Jazz. "YAAAAAAH!" she screamed in terror, startling the squirrels off her shoulder and making everyone in the room jump. "Vlad's back to waste us all!" she shouted in terror before she dove behind Danny's legs and shivered with fear whilst poking her head out to make sure Vlad wasn't coming after her.

"GASP!" the two squirrels gasped in shock upon hearing Danielle's fear.

"Well would you look at the time," Valerie said nervously as she looked at her wrist but there was no watch. "My dad is going to be wondering where I am if I don't get home soon." She got off the couch and ran out of the house at a sprint.

"I forgot to water my cat," Tucker said nervously. "I should probably get right on that," he chuckled before he too ran out of the house.

"My parents wanted me to try on some new dresses before dinner," Sam chuckled nervously. "I should probably go and do it before they get angry." Then she too sprinted out of the house, slamming the front door shut behind her.

Vlad chuckled at Danielle's little tantrum and the other's nervousness in wanting to evacuate the house out of fear. "You can calm down Danielle," he said with amuse. "I'm not here to waste anybody."

"And how can we be so sure of that?" Jazz growled as Danny pulled the young girl in closer so that Vlad couldn't do anything to her. "You tried to kill her over the summer!" she snapped.

"GASP!" the two squirrels gasped in shock.

"You've been trying to waste me ever since we met and became enemies!" Danny shouted angrily.

"GASP!" the two squirrels gasped in shock once again.

"You held the world hostage for an impossibly large amount of money, and then you couldn't even protect it, leaving Danny alone to save us!" Jazz shouted.

"GASP!" the two squirrels gasped in shock one final time.

"Those gasping squirrels are right!" Danny half yelled as he pointed at them. "You have done too many terrible things to be seen in a civilized community. You shouldn't even be here! You should be dead!"

"Well it would seem that I lived Daniel," Vlad taunted the boy. "I was nearly smashed by the Dis-asteroid and survived; managing to make my way back to Earth a few days later where I spent the last few months hiding in the Canadian Wilderness, eating berries and various plants and animals to stay alive." Danny scowled at the man as he leaned over and got in his face. "Then I had a thought; with the Christmas season coming up, the Fenton's would surely be kind enough to let me stay."

"What!?" Danielle snapped. "Mom! Dad! How could you let him stay here after all he's done to us!?" she asked angrily.

Vlad cocked an eyebrow as did Danny and Jazz as they shot off glances at each other over Danielle's little slip-up. "What did you just say?" Maddie asked curiously.

"Oh," Danielle said before she clapped her hands over her mouth. "Sorry, that one snuck up on me," she explained sheepishly.

"Ahh, it would seem that Danielle has become so accustom to living here that she is beginning to refer to everyone as actual family members," Vlad mocked her. "How quaint," he said with a cheesy grin.

"Heehee," Danielle chuckled as she blushed with embarrassment before her stomach began to rumble. "Ugh, I'll be in the kitchen," she said nervously before she slinked her way around Danny and Vlad before disappearing into the kitchen with Jack and Maddie right behind her.

"I'm gunna go make sure she doesn't eat the contents of the fridge again," Jazz sighed before she made her way around Danny and walked by Vlad whilst glaring at him without so much as a shred of fear shown.

"I'll be along in a moment," Danny said without taking his eyes off Vlad who smirked towards the kitchen before turning to look back at Danny. "I don't know how you got my parents to agree to let you stay here, but if you so much as lay even one finger on Danielle," he snarled as he pointed his finger in Vlad's face. "I swear I will tear you apart limb by limb and feed you to the wolves," he warned.

"I'm sure on some level your suspicions are correct," Vlad admitted. "But I assure you; Danielle is not my priority as of recent," Vlad smirked as he spoke in a much darker tone.

"Just stay away from her!" Danny warned him before he stomped by him and disappeared into the kitchen. He stopped just short of the table to see an irradical Danielle sitting at the table eating hotdogs whole. The two squirrels sat on either side of the plate and watched their new friend. "Vlad's really gotten under her skin hasn't he?"

"Oh yah," Jazz confirmed as she folded her arms. "She'll be better after getting something to eat though."

"I'll need more than hotdogs then," Danielle spoke up as she reached over the squirrels and grabbed a handful of cookies before she stuffed them all in her mouth and began to chew, the squirrels picking up any crumbs she dropped. "These are really good," she said before grabbing more cookies.

Jazz picked up a cookie and sniffed it before taking a bite out of it. After a moment to savor its taste her eyes widened. "Wow, these are good. Nice work mom," she said as she held up the cookie before popping the rest of it into her mouth.

"Actually, I didn't make them," their mother admitted. "Vlad did," she growled as her eyebrows crossed.

"WHAT!?" all three kids shouted with surprise before Danielle and Jazz spat out their cookies all over the table just as Vlad walked in behind them with his hands behind his back and a cheeky grin spread across his face.

"Were you trying to poison us with your ill fated death cookies!?" Danny snarled as he held up a cookie and pointed at it.

Vlad remained calm, cool and collected as he countered such an accusation. "If I wanted to eliminate you Daniel, I would do something a bit more diabolical than poisoning you with chocolate chip cookies," he chuckled.

"He has a valid point," Jazz indicated to her brother, to which he crushed the cookie into crumbs with his hand. "But still not convincing enough," she growled under her breath as she shot a glare at Vlad.

"You were all kind enough to let me stay here," Vlad said simply as he shrugged his shoulders. "Now why would I repay your kindness by trying to kill you," he chuckled.

"I could think of a few reasons," Danielle snarled quietly.

"I could think of a few THOUSAND reasons," Danny repeated most of Danielle's previous statement. "Besides, we never agreed to let you stay here," he reminded his enemy. "My parents did," he said as he pointed at them as they stood out of the way on the other side of the kitchen. "I don't know what got into them, but until you are gone Danielle will be under twenty-four hour protection watch. You're not getting near her."

"She is no longer of any use to me," Vlad informed the boy. "You've stabilized her form, ensuring that I could no longer continue my research. Besides, I have other priorities that I must attend to before I refocus my issues onto you."

"Yeah right," Danny muttered as he dragged Danielle and Jazz out of the room, the two squirrels hopping after them while Vlad smirked to himself.

* * *

The day came and went and oddly enough the blizzard the day before had forced the schools to close once again. One more snow day and they'd start losing out on warm summer days as their school year dragged on to make up for the time lost in the winter, something no student ever wanted to have to pay for because of the weather.

Danny exited his house with his cell phone pressed against his ear. "You're telling me that your moms car is covered in over an inch of ice from front to back?" he asked whomever he was talking to in shock. "Yah, I'll be right over to undo the damage," he replied after a moment before he noticed Vlad following him out of the corner of his eye. "Hey listen, can you do me a favor Tuck?" he asked. A moment passed before he continued. "Tell Sam that when I arrive, Smokey needs to unload the sidewinders," he spoke in code before he slapped his phone shut and stuffed it into his coat pocket. "You can follow me all you want dude," he called out to Vlad without turning around. "I'm not gunna let you get under my skin like you did to Danielle," he informed the older man.

"Of course Daniel," Vlad said as he walked up beside him and walked right alongside him at his pace. "I just wanted to see what you were up to," he admitted with a warm smile.

"Danielle is under Jazz's protection," Danny informed him with a growl. "You can't hurt her now."

"How many times must I tell you this Daniel? She is no longer my priority," Vlad responded harshly.

"Oh-oh really," Danny said with a sinister smirk as they walked around a street corner and continued walking. The streets were deserted; no cars driving around because they were all frozen over or covered in too much snow and no people probably because it was too cold for most of them; nearly ten degrees with a zero degree wind chill. Luckily for Vlad; there were no people around to call the police to report his return. Danny and he could suffice the cold thanks to their more resilient ghost halves. "Because I'm having the hardest time trying to believe you," Danny informed him.

"That seems quite natural considering our past Daniel," Vlad admitted. "But I assure you, you have nothing to worry about until after the new year arrives at least."

"Sorry, but I'm not gunna take your word for that," Danny replied. "Considering our past and what you did and the fact that you're now living under my roof, I'm not letting my guard down for even a moment," he said with a grin.

"You seem pretty at ease right now my boy," Vlad said with a nasty grin. "Why so calm?" he asked with a bit of curiosity.

"Because I have friends to watch my back," Danny answered slyly. "NOW!" he yelled before he ducked onto his hands and knees.

"Huh?" Vlad questioned as he looked down at the boy before he looked up at a car they had stopped next to. The snow had been brushed away to reveal it was covered in over an inch of ice. Sam, wearing a parka with the hood down and around her neck, popped up and started chucking a barrage of snowballs at him. One of the squirrels from the park used excess snow to supply her with snowballs. "GAH!" he yelled as he put up his hands to defend himself as he backed up towards the nearby house. "Stop! Stop!" he screamed almost desperately. "I'm telling you, I don't have any sinister plans involving you or anyone else!"

Sam stopped her barrage allowing Danny to stand back up. They both looked up to the top of the house, allowing Vlad to follow their gaze now that he was no longer being pelted with snowballs. He looked up and went wide eyed at the sight of Tucker, also wearing a parka but with the hood covering his head showing only his face, standing on the roof with a rope in hand. Next to him was a plastic tarp being filled with snow by the second squirrel from the park. "Bon Voyage!" he called out with a salute before he grabbed the rope with both hands and jumped off the roof.

The rope slowed his descent, releasing the tarp and dropping the snow. Tucker landed lightly on the stoop to his house thanks to the rope slowing his descent just as Vlad jumped out of the way of the falling snow. It landed right where he had been standing. It wasn't enough to bury him, but had it hit him, he wouldn't have been a happy camper.

"ARGH!" he screamed. "I'm getting out of here before the three of you give me an embolism," he growled before he strolled back the way he and Danny came from.

"Good," Danny said with a triumphant smile as he high-fived Sam and Tucker on a job well done. "He's out of our hair," he said with a smile. "For now," he added much more darkly.

* * *

The days slowly passed as the tension at Fenton-Works remained at all time highs with Vlad's presence so close. Danielle stayed clear of Vlad, going so far as to dart out of the room whenever he walked in. Vlad often times found himself amused at her paranoia.

Danny remained on edge almost twenty-four seven; nearly forgetting that Christmas was a little more than a week away in the process. He was too busy keeping his eye on Vlad that he had forgotten to get presents for his family and friends; but he thought that out of all of them, Danielle deserved a gift the most.

The weather outside had closed many places across town; schools no longer included due to closing for annual winter breaks. One of the few things that remained open; the press. A paper boy on a bike with chains on the wheels to keep him from sliding on the ice sped past as he threw a newspaper that landed on the stoop to Fenton-Works. The main article on the front page; "Santa Visiting the Mall Today," it read. A picture under the text showed a large man in a suit and white beard with two toddlers sitting on his lap.

A black gloved hand reached out and picked the newspaper out of the snow before a door is heard slamming shut. Jack stepped away from the front door and turned around as he read the front page news. "Hey!" he said with delight. "I know what we can do to brighten up everybody's day," he declared enthusiastically as he dropped the paper onto the coffee table for all to see.

Maddie sat in the chair with Danielle in her lap while Danny, Jazz and Vlad sat on the couch; Jazz sitting between her brother and Vlad to keep them separated. Vlad drank tea pleasantly while Danny sat in a huff with his arms folded.

"Ohhhhhh nooooooo," Jazz groaned as she palmed her face. "Not that, anything but that," she practically begged.

"What? You don't want to go to the mall and see Santa?" Jack asked defensively. "That's my favorite thing about going there," he declared with disappointment.

"Why, so you and Maddie can argue over his existence while simultaneously scaring hundreds of little kids for life?" Vlad asked as he reached for the newspaper and grabbed a section out of the middle. He opened it up and read its contents. "Well, it would seem that after all these months, my stocks are still at all time highs," he said with a wicked grin. "I should be able to reinvest up to the mall while the two of you are busy."

"Great! That makes three on board!" Jack said with delight. "Kids?" he asked.

"Maybe some other time Dad," Danny answered grimly.

"Ahh common!" Danielle groaned. "I wanna go! I've gotta see these two in action," she said as she pointed at the woman who's lap she was still sitting on.

"Always nice to have a fan," Maddie said scornfully.

"Can I ask why the two of you argue every single year?" Danielle asked her curiously.

"Well I used to believe in Santa," Maddie started to explain. "But I started to doubt several years ago after…'the incident'," she grumbled.

"The incident?" Danielle asked as her eyes widened. "What happened?"

"I'd rather not say," Maddie confessed. "Suffice to say that it involved an ambulance, two police cars, a fire truck, several phone calls and many mall employees and other witnesses."

"We're in the system!" Jack shouted enthusiastically, almost as if he were proud of it.

"We weren't allowed back for two years," Jazz grumbled as she scowled and folded her arms. "The security station has their mug shots so they keep an eye on them whenever they're spotted, yet SOMEHOW they always manage to slip past them until they're caught arguing."

"And if we leave right now, we can sneak by the security shack while they're switching shifts," Jack said, looking at the clock to see what time it was; roughly eleven am.

"I call the window seat!" Danielle called out before she jumped off Maddie's lap and dashed out the front door.

"Her paranoia is gunna wear off soon enough," Vlad said, still amused by Danielle's actions.

"Actually, she likes the window seat," Jazz informed him.

"She nearly twisted my arm off last month because I took her seat," Danny added as he rotated his shoulder. "She's strong for a twelve year old, but you would know; wouldn't you?" Danny taunted Vlad with a grin of his own.

"I'll admit that she caught me off guard once," Vlad growled. "But she has a long way to go before she's able to take me on," he said, regaining his confident composure. "As do you Daniel," he taunted the boy. He chuckled to himself as he stood off the couch and went outside where Jack and Maddie already had the RV waiting.

"Don't let him get under your skin Danny," Jazz said as she placed a hand on Danny's shoulder as he began to seethe with anger. "He's a mind manipulator, he's just trying to get you down," she reassured him.

"You're right Jazz," Danny said, calming himself down. "I can't let him get to me. If I do, then I won't be ready for when he decides to strike."

"One thing at a time," Jazz advised as she led him out the front door, putting their coats on before stepping outside into the cold. "Danielle is our first priority; whether it be protecting her from Vlad or mom and dad's fighting."

They climbed into the RV where Danielle was already sitting in her predetermined seat next to the window. Vlad hadn't gotten in yet so she remained pretty calm and collected as she looked out the window whilst kicking her seat with the heels of her feet. She had fastened her seatbelt and was ready to go.

"What, no secondary seatbelt?" Jazz asked as she and Danny sat in the two seats to her right and buckled themselves in, Danny between the two girls. Then they reached over their shoulders and grabbed secondary buckles before double strapping themselves in so the seatbelts appeared to make an 'X' over their bodies. "With our dad's driving? You're taking a big risk."

"Right," Danielle replied before she did the same as them and buckled herself in with a secondary seatbelt, forming an 'X' that crossed in front of her. "All ready," she said proudly.

Soon the RV was rolling down the road quite smoothly. Maddie had strapped herself into another back seat with the kids, allowing Vlad to ride up front with Jack. "Wow, dad's actually driving carefully for once," Danny said in shock. "This just can't be right."

"Bout time you got this driving thing down dad," Jazz said in approval so her father could hear her from the driver's seat.

"Thanks Jazzy-Pants!" Jack thanked her as he gave her a thumbs up as he leaned out of THE PASSENGER SEAT.

"DAD!?" Danny and Jazz said in shock.

"Why are you in the passenger seat?" Jazz asked as a paranoid expression spread across her face. Danny was also becoming paranoid; one of his eyes was twitching rapidly. "And…who's driving?"

"Why Vlady of course!" Jack exclaimed proudly as he put his hands behind his head and leaned back to relax. "I'm gunna relax during this ride." He was acting as if there was no longer any tension between him and his old college buddy, even after everything that had happened only a few months prior.

"This does not bode well for us," Danny said nervously.

Jazz reached to her side and pushed a button on the underside of her seat, activating yet another safety restriction. Three roller coaster safety bars appeared from behind and over their seats before hydraulics lowered them in front of the three kids, tripling the ensurity of their safety, but with Vlad driving instead of their dad, all bets were off.

"Don't worry Daniel," Vlad said from the driver's seat. He had a very firm grip on the steering wheel as he drove, swerving around cars still covered in snow on the side of the road. "I'll be sure to get us to the mall safely," he reassured. "I have just as much to lose should anything bad happen."

"He doesn't have anything; that's why he's trying to pull his life back together," Danielle whispered in a worried tone so that only Danny and Jazz could hear her.

A short ways down the road, the two squirrels from the park dug through the snow on the sidewalk, pulling frozen acorns out of hiding for them to feast on. While one of them stuffed an acorn into its cheeks the other noticed the RV coming down the road with Vlad at the wheel.

It gasped before it turned to its partner, chattering away in complete gibberish. The squirrel with all of the acorns in its mouth gasped, nearly choking on the acorns in the process. After a quick Heimlich maneuver, the two squirrels quickly gathered together three snowballs.

One of them held them up, holding onto two while the third balanced on top, while the other stood back and whiffed its tail around. It gave out a battle squawk before it charged the other squirrel. It spun its feet in the snow, turning its body so that it could whack the three snowballs out of its partner's hands with its tail like a baseball bat.

The three snow balls flew through the air before plopping against the windshield of the RV one at a time, completely blocking the view of the road for anybody inside the rolling tank. "YAAAAH!" Vlad screamed when he suddenly realized he couldn't see. "The windshield is blocked! I can't see! We're all gunna die!" he yelled in horror.

There was an uproar at Vlad's words. Jack and Maddie grabbed their seats and held on for dear life. Jazz and Danielle screamed in high pitched screeches. Danny was the only one of them that remained calm. He phased out of his safety belt restraints and calmly walked up to the controls and pressed a button on the dashboard. Suddenly the windshield became clear again as the windshield wipers cleaned away all of the now in an instant.

"Oh, I should have guessed," Vlad said slightly embarrassed as Danny gave him a bitter scowl before he turned and went back to sitting in his seat in the back.

* * *

"So which do you hate more; the crowds or the constant Christmas music?" Danielle asked out of curiosity. She walked with Jazz as Jack and Maddie led them through the parking lot up to the mall. They had a long walk because they had to park around the backside of the building. The parking lot was just too crowded for them to get any closer around this time of the year.

"Ehh," Jazz responded to Danielle's question with a tilt of the head and a shrug of the shoulders. "Both are kinda annoying I guess," she figured. "After experiencing too much of either over a prolonged period of time you start getting sick of it," she said, not mentioning which she was talking about, possibly on purpose to keep the girl's mind wandering in her thoughts. "You should pick up on these things quickly," she advised the girl. "You're only twelve years old biologically, but having missed out on the first eleven years, you've got a lot to make up for."

"Well there's a sentence that defies all laws of physics," Danielle said wide eyed upon the realization that she was indeed a preteen with only a few months worth of life experience.

Farther behind them, Danny walked side by side with Vlad at a steady pace. Danny decided to try acting respectably towards the man like his parents, he was still having a hard time believing he could have changed over the last few months. He mainly stayed behind so as to keep a watchful eye on him in case he tried anything sneaky that might impact him, or his family, or Danielle for that matter.

"She really does have a lot of questions doesn't she?" Vlad asked Danny as they trudged across the snowy parking lot towards the main entrance to the mall.

"We're trying in inlay some of life's moral obligations and lessons on her," Danny informed him. "Something you probably should have done months ago," he added with a grin. "You know, before she turned on you," he mocked him.

"Please don't remind me Daniel," Vlad responded harshly. "She was only one of many mistakes I've made in my life, hence why I'm trying to put it back together."

Finally after what seemed like a mile walk they entered through the glass doors of the mall to find it packed with people. People wove through the crowds like dancers, jumping from store to store to get whatever they needed. The constant chatter that was indefinite of all crowds was present as some people yelled back and forth to one another over the voices of hundreds of others. Some people even threw packages through the air to others over the heads of other people.

Vlad inhaled deeply before he sighed with relief. "Ahh, the crowds will serve as a perfect cover for me to slip through un-noticed," he said with a grin. "It's off to the stock boards for me," he half yelled over the sound of the crowd as he saluted to the Fenton's. "Got to reinvest myself if I want to get my money and house back," he said before he walked into the crowd; disappearing and blending in with everyone else within a matter of moments.

No screams or yells were heard from people recognizing him. Everybody was too busy to notice him slinking his way through. It was like he said; the crowd was the perfect cover for him to slip though un-noticed. Danny figured that the same couldn't be said for the stock broker that was about to come face to face with him in a matter of minutes.

"So, do you think he's really up to something?" Jazz half yelled to her brother, the noise coming from the crowd forcing her to raise her voice despite them standing right next to one another.

"Maybe," Danny half yelled in response for the same reason. "Can't tell just yet; but if he does try something here the crowd is gunna know about it before we do. Besides, I'd bet they're up to more than Vlad is at this point," he said. Jazz and Danielle followed his gaze passed the crowd to the mall security guard shack.

At the shack, one lone guard sat in a swivel chair with his legs up on the counter while he relaxed as he read the newspaper. Posted on the wall behind him were Jack and Maddie's mug shots, warning others to be on the lookout for them in case they tried to make their way to the Santa Claus exhibit in the food court so they could argue over his existence in front of the huge crowd. Jack and Maddie took this opportunity to slink passed the lone guard without being noticed.

"I'd say we've got another hour," Jazz guessed as she looked at a watch on her wrist. "What should we do to pass the time?" she asked curiously.

Danielle stuck her nose into the air and sniffed. "I smell chocolate!" she yelled with excitement before she took off into the crowd.

"I guess we'll be keeping busy by preventing her from eating all of the sweets at the candy store," Danny sighed before he and Jazz took off after the girl through the crowds. Being teens they were smaller than the adults and so thus were more easily able to squeeze between people, but Danielle was even smaller and so could duck between and through people's legs even faster.

High above the crowd a colorful sign hung over and open archway door. 'Sweet Feast' it read; next to it was a smaller plastic sign that read, 'everything half off until 12/31'. It would obviously be taken down for the New Year, returning the store's prices back to normal in January.

The view panned down as a horde of people fought their way either in or out of the store. Danielle easily ran through the crowd with Jazz and Danny right behind her, although they had to put up more of a fight to make their way through the crowd than Danielle did.

She gasped as she looked around the store with awe. The shelves and display cases were filled with many different assortments of treats. Fruits half-dipped and fully dipped in chocolate were laid out on large white sheets of wax paper. Various kinds of nuts and cashews were bunched together and dipped in either chocolate or caramel. Large chewy chunks of fudge among many different assortments of chunks of chocolate; milk, dark, white, marble, filled with nuts; all lay out behind sheets of glass low enough for Danielle to peek at them.

"OOH! These look good!" Danielle oohed and ahhed as she observed a pile of peanut clusters inside the display case. "OH! And so do those!" she said as she pointed at a pair of strawberries that were half dipped in chocolate. She rushed around the store, looking into display case after display case, drooling over the contents…not in a literal context.

"You know, buying her some of this stuff for her would buy us some brownie points from Santa," Jazz pointed out to her brother. She spoke in her normal voice because the noise from the crowd was much quieter in here.

She shot a quick glance at a ceramic Santa sitting next to the cash register. She saluted it before the view changed to a black and white image of her and Danny being viewed from the ceramic Santa. Returning to normal view, one of the ceramic Santa's eyes appeared to rotate and focus like a camera lens, startling a little boy that was standing nearby.

"Alright," Danny agreed. "But only stuff low on sugar," he advised. "It tastes the same and she doesn't need to go into another sugar high; mom would kill us if we did that."

Danny and Jazz followed Danielle around the store; taking the liberty to select all of these things she took interest in, almost everything, which were low in sugar or healthier than most other things. They collected the candies in a large white bag and split the bill at the register. After leaving and re-entering the huge crowd they realized they must have bought half of the candy shop. Nonetheless, Danielle happily tossed various treats into her mouth and chewed with delight.

"This stuff is really good," Danielle said happily. "You're telling me this stuff is low in sugar?" she asked as if in shock as she held up a cluster of caramel covers peanuts.

"It all tastes the same," Jazz said as she ruffled the girl's hair. "And the good news is that as long as you don't eat it all in one sitting, you won't get a sugar high."

"Because it's low in sugar," Danielle pointed out with a wink before she tossed the cluster of peanuts into her mouth and began to chew with blissful delight.

Suddenly a commotion out of view caught everyone's attention. The crowd dispersed as they made their way towards the food court where a loud chatter could be heard.

"Uhh Ohh," Danny said. "It must be…you know," he said unpleasantly.

Danielle swallowed the cluster of peanuts after chewing them. "Now this is something I have got to see," she said eagerly before she began to run towards the food court with Danny in short pursuit, leaving Jazz to stand alone.

"Oh no," she muttered to herself as she palmed her face. "We won't be able to come back for months," she groaned before she took off after the two Danny's. She fought her way through the crowd and managed to catch up to them at the edge of the Santa exhibit where the commotion was taking place.

Nine fenced in reindeer representing Dasher and Dancer, Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid, Donner and Blitzen, and of course a red nosed Rudolph were off to one side of the exhibit with Santa sitting in the middle with a little plastic house representing his North Pole workshop directly behind him.

Indeed Jack and Maddie were arguing over him with mega phones to ensure they could be hear by the crowd, and the security officials that would soon be along. A long line of children stood off to the side, waiting for their turn; all of whom looked quite impatient, as did the parents of said children. The person who seemed most impatient was Santa. He slumped over in his chair with his head resting on one of his hands while he waited for security to come and remove them from the premises. He must have gotten used to their arguing over the years by this point.

"He does exist!" Jack yelled.

"He doesn't exist!" Maddie hissed.

This went on and on several times, much to the amusement of other shoppers in the area. Danny and Jazz face-palmed themselves in embarrassment while Danielle fell to the floor with laughter before she managed to stumble back to her feet by pulling herself up on one of Danny's pant legs.

"He does exist" Jack yelled.

He doesn't exist!" Maddie hissed.

"HE DOES EXIST!" Jack snarled.

"HE DOESN'T EXIST!" Maddie shrieked. "And I can prove it!" she snarled before she reached out and pulled off the Santa's beard.

"HUH?" the fake Santa Claus questioned when he suddenly realized his beard had been removed.

Jack along with the entire crowd gasped in shock before everything and everyone went silent; it was so silent a pin drop could be heard from across the mall. A small child began crying as his mother picked him up and held him dearly. Danielle stopped laughing as her mouth dropped open and her eyes widened. Danny and Jazz removed their hands from their faces and their mouths dropped open as well when they realized what had happened.

"HE'S A FAKE!?" Danielle snarled. "What a rip off! They ripped his beard right off!" she stated the obvious. She was the only one in the crowd that said anything so everyone heard her.

"They just de-bearded Santa in front of all these people," Jazz said in a whispered form of shock. "That's practically a sin."

"I think we should get out of here before it turns into a blood bath," Danny muttered silently. He grabbed Danielle by the arm and led her through the crowd with Jazz right behind them. Nobody seemed to notice them though as they were all transfixed as an embarrassed Maddie tried to stick the beard back onto the man's face with little success while he glared daggers at her.

* * *

The three kids decided to wait out by the RV for their parents to be thrown out by mall security like they were every year. The snow began to fall gently once again as the two teens watched Danielle continue to eat through her large bag of candy; she wasn't even half done with it.

"Can I ask you guys something?" Danielle asked gloomily as she lowered her candy bag away from her mouth. "Why was that Santa a fake?" she asked. "Why did he look like our mailman?"

"All mall Santa's are fake," Jazz informed her matter of fact'ly. "Santa can't be expected to show up at all the malls across the globe every single day when he has to save his strength for Christmas Day when he really needs to move that fast; that's why they have fake ones, they sit in his place while he rests up for his big day."

"But kids even younger than you don't realize this," Danny interlude. "They still think he's the real Santa; and so when mom ripped his beard off…who knows what went through their minds. Now you understand why this isn't exactly my favorite time of the year," he reminded her of his opinion of the holiday.

"And that fake Santa looked like our mailman because he is our mailman," Jazz answered Danielle's last question.

Their attention was suddenly drawn to a back exit to the mall as the metal doors were slammed open from within. A muscular mall security guard stood in the doorway with Vlad in hand. "AND STAY OUT!" he yelled as he chucked Vlad out the door, sending him sliding several feet across the ground through the newly fallen snow. He slammed the door shut with a loud bang after going back inside.

Vlad stood up and dusted snow off his jacket before he noticed the three kids laughing at his misfortune. "Didn't take too kindly to your return huh?" Danny asked through his laughter.

"Funny Daniel," Vlad growled as he finished dusting himself off. "I managed to reinvest my stock portfolio before the man recognized me and called security."

"You managed to get what you wanted without overshadowing him?" Danny asked slightly shocked. "Impressive," he said as he cocked an eyebrow.

"So I managed to catch a quick glimpse of your parents being captured by security as I was being led out," Vlad said eagerly in an attempt to get a reaction out of them. "Apparently they de-bearded Santa," he asked with an intriguing eyebrow.

"Yup, we witnessed that," Danny said as Danielle nodded along between mouthfuls of candy.

"Well in any case they were right behind me," Vlad chuckled to himself, sounding rather satisfied. "They should be here in about-" he started to say before he pulled a pocket watch attached to a thin gold chain out of his coat. "-Three…Two…One…Now," he counted down with a wicked smile.

He and the three kids turned and looked at the back exit Vlad had just been thrown out of just as the doors slammed open once again and sure enough, two guards had dragged Jack and Maddie out before they shoved them out the door and onto the ice pavement. "That's for severely scarring several dozens of little kids, probably for life!" one of them hissed.

"We don't want to see the two of you here again until AFTER the holidays!" the second hissed before he and his partner stomped back into the mall, slamming the metal doors behind them.

"That was excellent timing," Danny chuckled as he pointed a finger at Vlad who stood poised with amusement. "I've gotta give you that," he added as Vlad quickly glanced at the boy and smiled meekly.

Maddie quickly pushed herself onto her hands and knees before sitting down upright and began rubbing away a headache she had acquired, probably from fighting with security before getting a night stick banged against her noggin. Jack wasn't as fortunate; when he tried to get up he realized that his tongue had become frozen to the icy pavement.

"UGH!" Jack gasped as best as he could with the difficulty of speaking with his tongue stuck outside of his mouth. "Cab subune gt me a gwass ub wahm wabba?" he asked as he pointed a finger into the air while Maddie sighed with grief.

"UGH!" Danny grunted while Jazz and Danielle sighed with grief. "I'll go unfreeze him," he said before he walked out of view just as his eyes began glowing bright blue.

The sound of skin ripping away from frozen pavement is heard followed by Jack screaming. "YOW!" Jack yelped from out of view while Vlad chuckled to himself at Jack's pain and misfortune.

* * *

The next few days passed by at snail's paces, in other words, very slowly. Danielle was beginning to lose sleep as she went to bed late and woke up too early in anticipation. Jazz had lost count of how many times she told the girl that it wasn't healthy for a girl of her age. "Listen, I know you're excited for Christmas to get here; but going to bed at this time of the day isn't going to make the next few days go by any faster," she found herself telling the girl several times since they went to the mall.

"You don't know that," Danielle often times responded from under her bed covers with grumbles before views of the alarm clock which would tend to read times within a ten minute range of noon, said otherwise.

"Oh, I think I do," Jazz would often respond to the girl's statements, sometimes in whispers as if she were talking to herself.

All the while Jazz would be doing this, Vlad would tend to hog up the phone lines speaking with high officials, stock brokers, home sellers, bankers, and anyone else that would have an impact on him getting his home and money back. Sometimes he left the house to run errands; Danny could only imagine what he was doing; overshadowing the people he spoke with in order to convince them to hand over his old possessions.

The days wound down until finally it was Christmas Eve. It was around noon so Jazz was probably trying to get Danielle back out of bed. Maddie was baking more cookies while Danny supervised from the kitchen table while he pretended to be reading from a comic book. He paid no attention to his mother; he was preoccupied with glancing over his reading material at Vlad and Jack who were currently playing chess at the kitchen table opposite him to keep themselves preoccupied.

Lately Vlad had been following Danny and Danielle around the house a lot, wanting to be in the same rooms as them for odd reasons, much to their dislike. Danny tried to ignore him as much as possible, much as Danielle had finally become accustom to, but it often didn't seem to work out for him.

He was becoming paranoid of the thought that Vlad was perhaps plotting to murder him and his family in their sleep before kidnapping Danielle, taking her to some dark and twisted underground layer so he could study her, melt her down and examine her remains. Although that possibility was completely obscured by this point, Danielle's ghost form had become stabilized and could no longer be melted down; but there was still the fear of it in the back of his mind, and he knew it existed within Danielle's as well.

All in all, he knew that in some form or another, Vlad was planning to ruin his Christmas. He just couldn't figure out what he was going to do or when he was going to do it. He just knew that he had to be prepared for anything at any moment. He glanced up from his comic to look at Vlad and his father before he noticed Jazz walk in with a tiresome Danielle by her side. If the worst were to happen, it would be up to him to protect his family. Danielle was certainly in no condition to fight; probably something Vlad was expecting.

Like the game he was playing with Jack, Vlad knew how to manipulate people like pawns in a large game of chess. Danny knew; he had been played on multiple occasions by this master of personal manipulation as had Danielle, hence why she ended up turning on him in the first place. Danielle's tiredness was just another strategy he would use against Danny; it was easier to fight one Danny than two.

Danny shook his head of these thoughts. He knew he was becoming paranoid. He was filling his head with thoughts and ideas that probably would never come to pass…or would they? This was Vlad's game, yet another way of getting Danny to stay on edge so it would be easier to take him out. Things were just so much easier when Vlad was thought to be dead or lost in the confines of space, never to return to civilization.

This only caused Danny to become even more paranoid. What seemed strange to Danny and had been bugging him for weeks was that Vlad had been left in space, abandoned by Jack. He had developed a new sense of hatred towards Vlad after finding out he was really 'Vlad Plasmius', the so called 'Wisconsin Ghost' as Jack had dubbed him, much like how Danny had once been dubbed 'Inviso-Bill' before everyone learned of their true names.

Vlad had used his father, among many others, as 'Human Meat Puppets'. Jack hated when that happened to him and when he found out Vlad's true identity, he left him in space, severing whatever friendship he thought they still held as a result.

Yet here they were months later, as if nothing had ever happened. Sure Vlad had revealed his ghost half to the world just as Danny had, but here his father was treating him with the same kind of respect and kindness he once showed him. They laughed and played games almost like they were brothers, or college buddies once more.

Vlad was even showing him the same form of kindness and respect in return. Over the last year and a half, and possibly long before that even, he had plans on killing Jack and stealing Maddie. So many times he had tried yet failed; whether it was by Danny's hands or his own undoing; he never succeeded.

Even Maddie was treating him with respect and kindness. Something she hadn't showed him in over a year. Vlad had made creepy advances towards her on several occasions; effectively tearing any friendship they had. She never told Jack otherwise he may have ended their friendship far sooner than he had, but that wasn't the point to Danny's paranoia.

What was crawling under Danny's skin was the fact that despite what Vlad had done to him and his family, his parents were treating him so differently than he would have expected them too. They let him stay under their own roof and they were acting as if they had been manipulated by him into forgiving him for his past actions.

Danny knew this was what must have happened. Vlad had earned their trust to let him into their home. He had scared Danielle into staying away from him and now she was too tired to care that she was sitting at the kitchen table only one seat away from the madman. Jazz was slowly starting to warm up to him, but Danny knew that above all else he couldn't let Vlad manipulate him. He had gotten through to the rest of his family, but he wouldn't get through him. He had foiled Vlad's plans on countless occasions and he was prepared to do it again if the situation ever came to him having to protect his family.

Danny gritted his teeth but kept his lips closed to prevent himself from barring his teeth. He lowered his eyebrows and shot daggers at Vlad from over his comic. If it hadn't been for his better developed sense of self control that he had gained through fighting ghosts, he might have leapt over the table and tackled Vlad out of his seat and onto the floor.

It was at this time that Vlad looked up from his chess game with Jack and noticed Danny staring with a seething glare at him. "Ah, Daniel," he said with a grin. "You seem quite eager," he observed as he took Jack's bishop. "What has gotten you on such a razor thin edge my boy?" he asked curiously as Jack made a counter-move, taking Vlad's knight.

"Oh I don't know Vlad," Danny replied in a definite sarcastic yet angered tone. "Perhaps it's because someone is plotting to murder my family and ruin my holiday," he growled, making everyone stop doing what they were doing and look at him with concerned looks. "Maybe someone in this house even," he added, hinting at something.

Danielle's eyes went wide as she looked away from him to across the table as a silhouetted knife is heard being brought through the air and held up so it appeared to be positioned near her head from across the table. She gulped nervously and began sweating profusely before the knife came down on a sheet of cookies. Maddie was using the knife to pry them off the cookie sheet and gently placed them on a large white plate in the center of the table. Why she wasn't using a spatula is unknown to everyone, except her.

"Oh that's nonsense Danny," Jack said reassuringly as Vlad took his rook. "Nobody in this house is plotting to kill anybody," he said as he decided on a move to make. He grabbed his bishop and took out Vlad's other knight. "Right V-man!?" he asked over-enthusiastically as he looked up at his old college bud.

"Oh of course not," Vlad replied, denying any involvement in such a ludicrous idea. With Jack's bishop out of the way he was free to take Jack's queen with ease. "I would never try something so subtle and evil like that ever again."

Jack went on trying to figure out a decent move to make while Danny returned to looking at his comic all the while retaining a skeptical look in his eyes.

"I mean really, me trying to pull off something so foolish after my past actions would be just too daring," Vlad said calmly and with a straight face. "Even by my standards," he said with a chuckle. "Who is honestly going to believe that I overshadowed your parents and convinced them from within to let me stay here if they didn't believe I had changed?" Vlad asked the boy as Jack made his move and took out one of Vlad's pawns. "Like I was possibly planning to kill everyone, kidnap Danielle and melt her down so that I could study her remains, all the while playing mind games on everyone to keep suspicions away from me."

He smiled with a toothy grin as they all took in what he had said. Danny, Danielle and Jazz all exchanged worried looks before Jack and Vlad broke out into laughter before laying their arms across the other's shoulders. They laughed so hard that they had to wipe away tears.

"Oh, I am such a josher," Vlad said as he wiped away a tear.

Maddie smiled meekly. "Uhh, I do believe the cookies are done," she said nervously to break the tension in the room.

"Ahh, excellent!" Vlad said joyfully before he moved his queen into position near Jack's king. "Checkmate!" he declared. Jack stopped laughing and bent over as he examined the chess board for any more possible escapes. But there were none, he had been beaten. He scowled sourly before the scene faded away.

* * *

Much later in the day; evening in fact; Danny, Danielle and Jazz sat in the living room watching TV. Jazz seemed pretty calm, almost at peace; Danny was still digging through his thoughts in a paranoid delusion; and Danielle was more anxious than ever. Every few minutes she would look up from the TV and stare at the clock. It was currently seven pm.

"Five…more…hours…" she groaned as she pulled her knees in close to her chest and rocked back and forth on her seat cushion. Her eyes were wide and she was jittery despite her slow speaking and even slower reactions to everything around her. "I don't know how much more of this I can bear," she said groggily.

"Danielle, you just need to try and relax," Jazz said in a calm and collected tone; she spoke as if she were under a spell, or was trying to put Danielle in one, one or the other. "By watching the clock, Christmas isn't going to come any faster," she reminded the girl.

"Yah, it's like watching a pot of water, waiting for it to boil," Danny said to the girl. "The longer you watch that clock, the slower the hands will tick," he spoke metaphorically. "Just like a pot of water, it will never boil."

"Maybe it will!" Danielle replied. "You don't know that!" she practically snapped. Her groggy state of mind had caused her to have a massive mood swing; perhaps it was that time of the month.

"Actually, I do," Danny informed her. "I've watched a pot of water sitting on the stove, waiting for it to boil," he set the scene as he remembered back. "And let me tell you something, it took FOREVER to boil."

"That's not what I meant," Danielle growled through gritted teeth. "You know how badly I want Christmas to come!" she wailed.

"Oh, right," Danny said nervously. "That's…where I was going with…that," he made up some lame excuse that obviously missed its mark.

"I mean, if I go to sleep now, then I'll be up too early and I'll just have to wait for you guys to wake up before we can open presents," Danielle contemplated. "And I don't wanna wait." Then a sudden thought occurred as the light bulb in her head turned on. "But if I stay up later now, then I'll wake up right on time," she realized as a look of joy spread across her face, but it was short lived because it was quickly replaced with a look of panic. "But what if I stay up too late!?" she half shouted fearfully as her eyes widened. "Then I might sleep in too late and I'll miss opening my presents!"

"Danielle you need to calm down!" Jazz shouted as she slapped some sense into the girl with one swift smack, not hard enough to hurt her, just hard enough to get her to stop panicking. "You're becoming as paranoid as Danny is about his Vlad killing us theories."

"Hey!" Danny argued but an angered glare from Jazz shut him up in a hurry.

"Oh no!" Danielle said as if suddenly spooked. "Vlad! What if Danny's right!?" she gasped as terror filled her eyes. "What if Vlad murders everyone in their sleep!?" she asked no one in particular as she began to shake. "What if Vlad takes me away!? What if Vlad tries to melt me down again!? What if Vlad-!?" she was about to ask before she was interrupted from behind.

"What if Vlad what?" came the drawling voice of Vlad as he entered the room after having come from upstairs. He smiled with his usual cocky grin as always.

"YAAAAAAH!" Danielle screeched loudly as she slid out of her chair and landed on the ground with a loud bang after having the wits scared right out of her. After regaining herself, she got back in her chair and peered over the back of her seat. All Vlad could see were two baby blue eyes peering at him from under a mess of raven black hair and a red beanie.

He chuckled at Danielle's antics and apparent delusions of paranoia as he took a seat on the couch between Danny and Jazz; Danielle had slunk back down into her seat on Danny's far side so Vlad couldn't get to her, easily anyway. "So, what are you kids watching?" he asked, finally breaking the silence in the room like fragile glass.

"Nothing," came a simple response. It was from neither Danny nor Jazz. They all glanced at the young, fearful girl sitting in her seat with her arms folded.

"Nothing?" Vlad asked with interest as he raised an eyebrow curiously. "The little one speaks?" he asked, almost as if shocked that she could speak at all. For the first time since becoming stabilized, she had acknowledged him. "But why sit in front of the TV if not to watch something?" he asked curiously as he eyeballed the girl.

They all eyeballed the TV screen as a series of flashing lights caught their attention. The black and white movie known to the world as 'It's a Wonderful Life' was playing.

"Instead of saying, 'nothing'," Vlad said as he used his fingers as air quotes. "Why not just say you're watching 'It's a Wonderful Life'?" he asked anyone one of the three.

"Weren't you ever a kid?" Jazz growled. "It's just a teen thing Vlad," she said bitterly as she went back to watching TV.

"You wouldn't understand old man," Danny insulted him with a low toned growl as he did the same as Jazz and went back to watching the movie.

Vlad sighed at their incompetence. "Daniel, for once would you and your sisters please try to understand that I am not up to something?" he said to the kids. Danny's and Jazz's eyes suddenly bulged as if having heard someone let a big cat out of a bag, luckily Danielle hadn't caught on. She must have gotten Danny's clueless gene. "I'm just staying here with you until I can get all of my Earthly possessions, mansion and money back. I don't have any plans to kill you or anybody you know in their sleep."

"Yeah, yeah," Danny said as if mocking him; he obviously didn't believe a single word he was saying. "Wait a minute," he said when he realized something. "What was that that you said?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"What?" Vlad said as he shrugged his shoulders in annoyance. "I don't have any plans to kill you or anyone you know in their sleep?" he repeated the last thing he just said.

"Uhh, no," Jazz said, jumping into the conversation, obviously knowing where Danny was going with this. "Before that," she said as she pointed her finger at him.

"Uhh, please try to understand that I am not up to something?" he asked as he tried to remember back to what he had said before that.

"No!" Danny and Jazz half-shouted in unison. "In the middle!" they both said as they held their hands about one foot apart from the other with their palms facing each other.

"Ohh!" Vlad said with surprise when he realized what they wanted out of him. "The fact that I'm just staying here with you until I get all of my Earthly possessions, mansion and money back," he said with a devilish sneer.

"Yah, what did you mean by that?" Danny asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Well you know about my escapade up to the mall at the stock broker?" Vlad calmly reminded them. "You also know about all the phone calls I've been making and all of the trips I've been making lately. Well I figure that in due time, I will be able to move back into my roomy castle in Wisconsin, which by the way is currently being occupied with Canadians," he growled. "They will certainly leave when I make my return. I'm also hoping to get all of my money back before too long," he explained.

"So that's what you've been doing this whole time," Jazz realized as she began to ponder some more.

"And what exactly do you think the odds are of any of this coming to fruition?" Danny asked.

"Quite good actually," Vlad responded in a cocky tone as he raised an eyebrow. "Christmas is supposed to be the season for miracles after all," he said with a shrug of his shoulders. Then he got right down into Danny's face and sneered with a wicked grin. "And just think, if I don't get my home back, just imagine what it'll be like having me live under your roof for the rest of eternity," he sneered as a possibility that he knew would haunt Danny for a long period of time.

Before Danny could respond, Danielle held up a small canister of energy drink. "Here's to hoping that Vlad gets his house back," she toasted joyfully. "And leaves us alone," she added with a disgruntled moan.

"See, she's got the right idea," Vlad sneered, making Danny feel even more uncomfortable. Then Danielle downed her energy drink, bringing her back from her sleepy stupor for another few hours. "Not too smart though," Vlad sighed with disappointment.

Danielle didn't think this through because the added energy would make time seem to pass by even slower. She glanced at the clock again and it read seven o' two. "Only two minutes have passed?" she said with disbelief. "This is gunna be a long night," she sighed as she hung her head and shook it from side to side.

* * *

The sun was still down when the alarm clock by Danny's bedside struck six o' clock in the morning on Christmas Day. When he was younger he may have been up by this time on this particular day, but being the lazy teenager that he was he decided that he'd rather sleep in and be wide awake when the big moment came to go downstairs. This of course didn't deter a smaller member of his family from trying to wake him up.

"Danny! Danny! Danny! Danny! Danny!" Danielle screamed in a rapid succession as she dashed into his room and belly flopped onto his bed, landing right on him. She was already fully dressed; red sweats for the cold holidays, blue sweat shirt, red beanie and her long raven black hair pulled back into a pony tail. Normally a gut wrenching blow when she landed on him, Danny merely groaned at having been awakened so early.

"Wha-" he groaned in his sleep, apparently landing on his stomach wasn't quite enough. He rolled over and Danielle flopped over onto the mattress next to him.

"Hmph," Danielle grunted as she landed on the mattress. She got back up and grabbed Danny by one of his eyelids. "Time to wake up Danny," she said sweetly. She looked into his bloodshot eye and only saw her own reflection looking back at her. She let go of his eyelid and it snapped shut. She pondered for a moment before it hit her. She raised a suspicious looking eyebrow and smirked with a devilish grin. "Danny, look out!" she yelled. "It's Vlad!"

"WHAT!?" Danny shouted as he rolled out of bed after being shocked awake. He disappeared behind his bed before a sudden flash of light lit up the room. He then phased up through his bed in his ghost form and aimed an energized hand at the girl thinking it was Vlad.

"YAAAH!" Danielle screamed before she dove over the wooden rail at the end of the bed and hid. She poked the top of her head back up to make sure he wasn't going to attack her before she stood up with a gleeful smile on her face. "Morning Danny," she said with a cheeky grin.

"Ugh, Danielle," Danny groaned. He palmed his face as he set his feet on his bed and returned to his human form before laying back down and covered himself back up; this time making sure his head was hidden under the covers as well.

"Common Danny," Danielle moaned sadly as she began to shake him through the blankets. "It's Christmas. Please wake up," she begged him.

"Go back to bed," he half-shouted from under the covers.

"But I wanna see all of the great stuff I got," she complained with disappointment as she looked down at the floor sadly.

"Then go wake up Jazz," he said through his blankets.

"She already did," came Jazz's voice from the doorway. Danielle looked up at her from the floor as Danny tossed off his blankets to look at his pajama clad older sister strolling up to his bed sluggishly before she flopped down face first next to him. "I told her to come wake you up so I could go back to sleep," she informed him, her voice being muffled from laying face first in Danny's pillow. "You can see how well that worked out."

"Will the two of you get out of bed!" Danielle shouted angrily as she stomped the floor with a loud thud from her foot. "We've gotta go wake up mom and dad," she said as she pointed her thumb over her shoulder before she realized what she said. Danny and Jazz's eyes suddenly sprung open with surprise. "I mean, your mom and dad…your parents…not mine," Danielle sheepishly corrected herself.

Danny and Jazz exchanged shocked glances with each other before they sighed. They rolled over in the bed and looked at the girl as she stared at them blankly, her face beat red with embarrassment. "Considering that it's Christmas and that Danny and I are older and a bit more mature than we have been in previous years," Jazz began to explain before Danny cut in.

"We were thinking that we might let them sleep in this year," he told the girl, finishing what Jazz was originally going to say before he interrupted her.

"Sleep in!?" Danielle shouted. "Like the two of you have been doing!?"

"Yah, it's a gift from us to them," Jazz explained as she sat up in the bed and turned so her legs hung off the side. "We let them get more sleep, thus we get more sleep, therefore when it comes time to open presents we are all wide awake and ready for the entire day."

"Something that we didn't quite understand when we were your age," Danny added as he sat up in his bed and stretched his arms high over his head, cracking a few bones in the process. "We ran our parents through the loops way back then."

"What kind of things did you put them through?" Danielle asked curiously as she jumped onto the bed and sat between Jazz and Danny as he turned his legs off the side of the bed.

"Well; three years ago," Jazz began to share with her as the scene warped and twisted before returning to normal as a white halo encircled the entire scene.

* * *

_The words 'three years ago' appeared at the bottom of the scene as Jack and Maddie are seen snoring peacefully in their beds. An alarm clock on a stand next to the bed read four o' clock in the morning in big glowing red numerals. _

_The bedroom door slowly creaked open and two pairs of soft foot steps are heard making their way through the darkness. The bed creaked, sounding over Jack's lumbering snoring. Suddenly, a bright beam of blue light from a flashlight shone directly into Jack's face. "WHA!" he yelled as he shielded his eyes from the bright light. Maddie woke up from his screaming and found herself face to face with her son. _

"_Common Mom!" Younger Danny shouted with excitement. "Wake up and get out of bed!" _

_Danny jumped off her as she looked from him to her daughter as she fought with her father to keep the flashlight shining directly into his face. Both kids were fully dressed in their regular clothing and both were wide awake as opposed to their parents. _

"_Common Dad!" Younger Jazz squealed happily. "It's Christmas! Let's go open presents!" she squealed with excitement before she finally jumped off the bed and ran out of the room with Danny on her heals. _

"_Christmas mornings get earlier and earlier every year," Maddie groaned as she rubbed the sand out of her eyes. Jack stretched his arms high cracking bones in the process before a loud snap sent him falling back to sleep."_

* * *

Back in the present with Danielle sitting between her two older cousins; "And then there was the year before that," Danny intervened before another flashback ensued, although this one much shorter.

* * *

'_Four years ago'. Jack and Maddie slept peacefully, Jack snoring of course, as the alarm clock next to the bed changed from four fifty-nine to five in the morning. Danny and Jazz are heard snickering in the darkness before the sound of an air horn went off. "YAAAAH!" Jack and Maddie screamed as they jumped and fell out of bed. They looked up at Jazz and Danny as they smirked with cheeky grins of joy as Jazz held the air horn high over her head._

* * *

"And how could we ever forget the year before that!?" Jazz asked in a tone to get the girl geared up for this short tale.

* * *

'_Five years ago'. Jack and Maddie slept peacefully, Jack snoring of course, as the alarm clock next to the bed changed from five fifty-nine to six o' clock in the morning. Danny and Jazz are heard snickering in the darkness before they screamed. "MOM! DAD! THREE GHOSTS ARE ATTACKING!"_

"_GHOST!" Jack and Maddie screamed as the jumped out of bed in their pajamas and ecto-guns in hand. "Huh?" they questioned when they saw Younger Jazz dressed as Santa only in a skirt as she held a large red bag slung over her shoulder. Being only twelve her stature was short and her face was rounded much like Danielle's. "What ghosts?" Maddie growled. _

"_The Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future," Younger Jazz explained. "Past being Danny and me coming up with this elaborate scheme to get you two out of bed," she explained with a smile. _

_Suddenly the bag she was holding opened and Danny stuck his head out. Being only ten he was even smaller than Jazz, his head appearing much too big for his body. "Present representing all of the presents waiting for us downstairs," he explained. _

"_And Future meaning we aren't going to quit until you're both out of bed," they said in unison. Jack and Maddie growled as they exchanged angered yet sleepy glares with each other. _

* * *

Back in the present time, Jack and Maddie slept peacefully, Jack snoring of course, as the alarm clock next to the bed changed from eight fifty-nine to nine o' clock in the morning, much later than the Fenton children had let them sleep in previously. Jack and Maddie weren't expecting to sleep in this early; they thought their children would burst in early again, so they had taken precautions and triple bolted their door shut and locked.

"That's enough waiting!" Danny is heard yelling before he kicked the door in with one swift kick. He and the two girls rushed the room, fully clothed, and ran to the edge of the bed. Danielle jumped over the foot rest and landed at her Aunt and Uncle's feet. "Time to get up!" he shouted. "It's Christmas and we're done waiting," he declared.

"You kids do this EVERY YEAR!" Jack groaned angrily as he rolled over in his sleep and hid his head under his pillow.

"Do the three of you have any idea what time it is!?" Maddie asked angrily before she looked at the digital clock. "Nine o' clock?" she questioned quietly with a raised eyebrow. "Oh my gosh, they let us sleep in this year!" she said in shock.

"Great!" Jack shouted almost triumphantly. He threw the covers back and jumped out of bed, revealing that he had already been dressed in his orange jumpsuit instead of his stripped pajamas; Maddie was still wearing her green ones. "Let's all go downstairs then," he declared to which Danny and Jazz cheered for joy.

"Bout time!" Danielle said before she jumped off the bed and ran across the room to the window. "Now we can let in some light on this miraculous morning," she said as she grabbed the pull string for the window shades.

"DANIELLE! NO!" Danny, Jazz and Maddie yelled in horror, but their screams of plight came too late.

Danielle pulled down on the string, letting in bright beams of sunlight that engulfed the room. She turned around from the window with a smile on her face that quickly turned to confusion. Danny and Jazz stumbled around after being blinded as they tried to find their bearings.

"Anyone have the eye doctor on speed dial?" Jazz asked as she rubbed her eyes and waited for them to refocus. "I think my retinas just melted."

"As soon as my corneas grow back I'll give him a call," Danny groaned, obviously sarcastically as he too rubbed his eyes and waited for them to refocus.

"Jack, why aren't your eyes bothering you?" Maddie asked as she rubbed her eyes, she realized Jack wasn't reacting the same as them to the sudden flood of sunlight.

"Pulled my hood on just before Danielle opened the blinds," Jack said triumphantly. A quick shot of his head revealed he was wearing the rarely seen orange hood to his jumpsuit. "These goggles worked like a charm to keep out the extra light," he said, pointing to the blue goggles attached to the hood. "Now, who's ready for presents!?" he asked triumphantly as he put his hands on his waist.

"ME! I AM!" Danielle cheered as she jumped for joy as Danny, Jazz and Maddie scowled at the girl with bloodshot eyes.

* * *

The pile of presents underneath the Christmas tree appeared to have nearly tripled in size since they all went to bed the night before. Danielle ran down the stairs, her feet not even touching carpet as she raced for the tree and tackled a large box wrapped with a multi-colored paper. The tag that hung off the bow clearly had her name on it.

She was followed by the others as they made their way downstairs at their own pace. Maddie waded herself into the kitchen to start brewing coffee while Jack and the kids got settled in on the couch or on the floor with the presents. Danny plugged in the Christmas tree lights, and luckily this time the power didn't go out.

"So, when can we start opening them?" Danielle asked curiously as she picked up a smaller box and shook it, making something inside jingle.

"As soon as your mo…Aunt…" Jack caught himself and corrected nervously. "Comes back from the kitchen," he said as Jazz and Danny sighed with unrelenting relief. That's when he noticed a white ceramic plate with cookie crumbs on it sitting next to an empty glass of milk. "HEY! Santa ate the cookies we left out for him for once," he said joyfully, apparently Santa hadn't been taking their gift to him.

"BURP!" Danielle burped loudly, causing Danny and Jazz to look at her suspiciously. "Those were for Santa?" she asked nervously as she turned around and blushed. Danny and Jazz sighed this time with disappointment.

"What is going on down here?" Vlad suddenly called out as he appeared at the top of the stairs, fully dressed and fully awake. "Can't a person sleep in on this day?" he asked angrily.

"In your suit?" Danny asked him mockingly before he and Jazz slapped hands and snickered.

"Oh, common Vlad," Maddie said as she entered the room with coffee pot in hand, it was currently steaming from the dozen or so cups of coffee it now held. "It's Christmas!" she cheered as Vlad made his way down the stairs. "Mocha-Latte?" she asked as she held up an empty cup with her other hand.

"Oh yes please," he said with delight. She poured him a cup and handed it over before disappearing into the kitchen. Vlad took a long and deep sip, gulping the hot liquid down before he set the cup on a stand at the bottom of the stairs. "Well, I've had to make a lot of calls recently and everything appears to be in order," he said as he straightened out his suits collar.

"What's in order?" Danielle asked as she popped her head out of the pile of presents she had apparently rearranged into a temporary fort. She hadn't hesitated in asking him because like the others, she was jubilant in the thought of getting him out of the house.

"Well, it took some convincing and literal arm-twisting-" Vlad said as he used his hands to simulate strangling someone in a death grip as he gritted his teeth and seethed with built up rage.

"Not to mention some overshadowing," Danny whispered to Jazz.

"And a few death threats," she whispered back.

"But all in all, I managed to get all three of my homes and all of my money and possessions back," he said with delight as Maddie re-entered the living room and sat on the couch next to her husband with two cups of coffee. She gave him one and kept the other for herself.

"All three?" Danny and Jazz asked with confusion.

"You mean your Wisconsin castle, your Colorado estate and your mansion here in Amity Park?" Jazz asked with a shocked expression.

"That's great V-Man!" Jack said happily. "Now you can visit us whenever you want." He got off the couch and wrapped his massive arms around his old college bud/nemesis. "I'm ready to let bygones be bygones," he said as his grip on the man tightened.

Vlad barred his teeth as he started to turn blue. "That's great to hear Jack," he wheezed. "Now would you mind LETTING ME BREATH!?" he shouted angrily. Jack released him and jumped back as he put his hands up in his defense. Vlad huffed and puffed to regain his breath. He regained his composure and held out his hand to shake hands with his large friend. "I must thank you again for letting me stay here these last few weeks." They stopped shaking hands and he looked towards Maddie. "To both of you," he added to what he thanked Jack for just now.

"Heehee, you're welcome Vlad," she said warmly, but a hint of nervousness was apparent.

Vlad then turned towards the three kids; Jazz and Danny suddenly glared up at him from the couch as Danielle ducked behind her fort leaving only the top of her head visible. "And I do have to thank the three of you," he said in a quieter more sinister tone as he grinned with a devilish smirk. All three were within arm's reach from where he stood over them. He got Danny and Jazz in one arm and a squeamish Danielle in the other, knocking over her fort of presents in the process of pulling her and the other two in for a tight, spine-crushing embrace. "I should be glad I have rivals like yourselves to foil my plots," he instigated them. "Otherwise, I wouldn't have anything to shoot for in my life."

"Wow," Danielle huffed. "I feel so special," she said sarcastically.

"He's strong for a forty-something guy," Jazz panted before Vlad pulled them in closer so he could whisper and only they could hear him.

"Don't think for a moment that this peace will last forever you three," he whispered in their ears. "I am bound by the Christmas truce same as you," he inferred.

"The Christmas truce?" Danielle asked doubtfully, and with a raised eyebrow of curiosity.

"The Christmas truce!" Danny suddenly remembered. "I forgot about that, and all this time I've been so paranoid; I should've remembered that sooner."

"That you should have," Vlad whispered. "The truce ends at midnight on New Year's; come January first, I'm coming after you," he warned them. Danielle's eyes widened with fear and she gulped nervously at his forewarned allegations.

"And we'll be ready for you," Danny responded with a grin as Vlad released them and pulled away.

"Is that so?" Vlad asked with a suspiciously raised eyebrow. Danny merely returned a challenging smile before he sat down on the couch with a comforting arm around a frightened Danielle. "Well, I must be off then," he declared to them all.

"Oh common Vlady," Jack moaned. "Stay until we're at least finished opening presents," he practically begged.

"NOOO!" Danny and Danielle shouted before they silenced themselves by slapping their hands over their mouths, much to Vlad's amusement.

"I'd love to stay," he said almost as if he was going to accept the offer. "But I have other fish to fry," he declared. "Apparently over the last few months, my nursing home bound parents wrote me out of the family will, leaving everything to my sister and her side of the family," he growled angrily. "Nothing I can do to change that, so I'm just gunna scare them a bit for my amusement before I make my way home."

"You have a sister?" Danny asked in shock. "And all this time I thought you were a lonely old man who only had a cat named after my mom to keep him company," he said with a devilish grin. Maddie and Jack spat coffee out of their mouths upon hearing him say this. They gave Vlad questioning looks but nothing more was said on the subject.

"Mhmm," Vlad nodded in confirmation to Danny's first question about him having a sister. "They live in California. My niece and nephew are mighty smart kids; you'd get along great with them." A ring of black light appeared around his waist, transforming him into his ghostly alter ego Vlad Plasmius. "Well, I am off," he declared with a wave good bye. "See you all very soon," he warned them as he squinted his eyes and smirked before he phased through the ceiling, laughing maniacally all the way.

Danielle gulped nervously, Danny sighed with relief and Jazz and his parents smiled nervously as his laughter faded away into the distance. Vlad was finally gone, until New Year's that was. "Think he's gone?" Maddie asked her husband nervously through gritted teeth.

"Oh he's gone," Jack confirmed nervously through his own gritted teeth.

"Great, just one more precaution," Jazz interfered. She stuck two fingers in her mouth and whistled towards the kitchen.

Everyone leaned forward out of their seats until the refrigerator was clearly visible. The door was open and the two squirrels from earlier in the park were chewing on the emergency ham before they heard Jazz's signal. They saluted her before one of them pressed the button to activate the ghost shield. The generator at the top of the op-center activated and before long the flowing green waves of energy had materialized and surrounded the entire house and part of the street.

"What's going on?" Danny asked demandingly. "Why's the ghost shield active?"

"What, you thought Vlad was the only one that could be manipulative?" Jazz asked him with a chuckle. "We've been playing Vlad all along," she told him.

"Sorry sweetie," his mother apologized. "We didn't tell you or Danielle about our plan because there was the chance that he'd catch on if you weren't acting so protective with him around."

"But I gotta say, we fooled him good," Jack admitted, sounding rather proud of himself. "He didn't suspect a thing."

"And neither did we," Danny chuckled as he embraced his cloned cousin with one arm. Even her spirits seemed to have brightened upon learning that everyone had been playing Vlad for a foolish Froot Loop this entire time.

Maddie cocked an eyebrow towards her husband as she reached for his back. "What's this?" she asked as she removed a piece of paper taped to his back. She unfolded it and in big, black, marker embolden letters read the message, 'Yes I did. Vlad.' She shared the message with the others. "He knew we were onto him and he led us to believe that we were playing him like fools," she growled as she crumpled the note in one hand.

"That's Vlad for ya," Danielle said as she put her arms behind her head. "Hey, if he's only half ghost then couldn't he just walk right back through the ghost shield?" she asked curiously.

Everyone was silent for a moment before they palmed their faces. "Oh crud," Jack grunted.

"Ehh, who cares anymore?" Danny said with a shrug of his shoulders. "If he was gunna waste us then he would have done it by now." He was apparently coming to terms with the idea that Vlad wasn't out to get him, or any of them for that matter.

"Unless this is just another ruse of his to get us into lowering our guard," Jazz suggested.

"Can we please just drop this!?" Danielle shrieked, making everyone jump in surprise. "Enough with these stupid theories; can we please just open presents now!? I've been waiting for over a week for this moment and not Vlad nor anyone else is going to ruin it for me!"

"I'm game!" Jazz declared. "Now…" she said with a sinister smirk as she flexed her fingers giving them the appearance of a controllable twitch. "Which present to open first?" she asked no one in particular as the scene faded to about an hour later.

By the time the pile of presents and all of the gifts were gone, the floor had become plastered with nearly a quarter-ton of multicolored wrapping paper. Many different assortments of unwrapped gifts; boxes of clothes, games, books, random toys, etc were neatly stacked in random areas around the room. Like a usual little kid, Danielle had replaced her beanie with a bow that stuck to her hair, getting her even more into the Christmas spirit.

"Well, that looks like everything," Jazz said with some relief as she began picking up pieces of paper and stuffed them into a garbage can; something they probably should have been doing the whole time. "We need to start throwing this stuff away."

"NO!" Danielle shrieked. "That can't be all of it!" she screamed as she began picking up paper and tossing it around as she dug through it in hopes of finding more that had become buried. "There has to be more!"

"Weeeeell," Danny began to ponder. Danielle looked up from her unrelenting search for more presents hiding in the torn wrapping paper and eyed her older cousin. "There may be ONE more present for you," he said slyly. He smirked at his mother who nodded in understanding.

She stood from the couch where Jack had fallen back asleep and was snoring peacefully, his constant exhaling blowing a small piece of wrapping paper that was covering his face into the air. Maddie crossed the room and opened a nearby desk, looked around for something before pulling out a manila folder. She handed it to the girl and sat back down next to the snoring Jack.

"What's this?" Danielle asked curiously as she examined the sealed folder. "The results from that test I took before school break?" she asked.

"Open it, and see for yourself," Danny challenged her with a wave of the hand.

Curious as she was, Danielle reluctantly opened the folder and noticed several sheets of paper inside. "Well, it's not my school midterm," she realized as she removed them and examined the first page. Her eyes moved from side to side as she read the document. She gasped when she read the word, "Adoption?" she asked, looking up from the documents.

"Well?" Maddie said anxiously. "What do you think?"

Danielle was speechless. Her mouth was agape and her eyes were wide as she continued to read the document declaring that Jack and Madeline Fenton had formerly agreed to take one 'Danielle Masters' into their household as their own, changing her name officially to Danielle Fenton. Included with the adoption papers were her own official birth certificate and social security number card as well as an explanation for her orphanage and her reason for existing; Vlad's attempts at cloning Danny and all.

Then she finally spoke. "I never thought something like this would ever happen to me," she whispered as she lowered the documents, her eyes still wide with shock. Then she went into hyperactive over-drive. "This is so cool! I'm so happy right now!" she shrieked. "I mean, this is just like winning the lottery, but without all of the taxes!" she shouted as she ran in circles around the room, losing the bow that had been stuck to her head in the process. "Or, or getting your driver's license and a brand new car all in the same day! Or-!"

"Danielle, you need to calm down," Danny said to calm her. "Take a few deep breaths before you pass out!" he warned her.

"Oh, sorry," Danielle sighed with a deep breath. "You guys, this is the greatest present anyone could have given me," she squealed with delight. She ran around the room and hugged everyone, even Jack, waking him up with a snort. "Thanks, for everything," she wept happily as she wrapped her arms around Danny's waist. "Although I'm gunna have to ask who's idea it was to declare my name as 'Masters' before it was 'changed'," she growled. In the end, it truly was a great and happy Christmas for them all.

* * *

Just three months prior, Danielle had been a lone twelve year old ghost girl traveling the world, dispensing her own unknown brand of ghostly justice wherever she was needed. She had lived a hard life, what with finding out that her renounced father Vlad was only using her for his benefit; not to mention nearly dying when he melted her down. Then she met the Fentons, her name sakes. They had heard her life story, however short it was, and let her stay with them out of pity, or so Danielle thought.

But over the last few months she had grown attached to them and them to her, and the recent events that unfolded early on Christmas Day were the proof. Jack and Maddie took Danielle's case to an adoption agency, under Danny and Jazz's suggestion, and told them of her situation. They had agreed to make her an official part of the Fenton Family; and now that Danielle was an official Fenton, her spirits had risen and she couldn't have felt happier.

Now days before the New Year was to begin, she was still living under the Fenton's roof with an official birth certificate locked away within a safe somewhere in the lab along with everyone else's. She had a place that she could call home, and a family that she could call her own. But one thing was still on her mind. Vlad.

Vlad had returned from space and within the course of two weeks reacquired his house, all of his possessions and his money back. So she could be very certain that he'd be coming after them later on, much like he had promised them right before he left. But with her spirits raised to their height, there was almost nothing that could bring them back down. She and Danny looked forward to kicking his butt again and constantly foiling his dark and evil plans as Danny had been doing for so long, just like old times.

But, that was still a ways off because for now, it was only New Year's Eve, and Danielle had joined Danny, Sam and Tucker to a nice, greasy meal at the Nasty Burger, much to Sam and Tucker's dismay. Not even remotely considered a picky eater, the twelve year old scarfed down a double cheeseburger, drank half a cup of soda through a straw and burped loudly, much to half the restaurants disgust. The elderly couple at the next table over glared at them before going back to their meal.

While Danielle was contending to her stomach on a buffet of food lay out before her, Danny caught Sam and Tucker up on recent events; particularly events that revolved around what happened with Vlad before and during Christmas. Sam and Tucker had given him their full attention as they listened intently on his story. What Danny was about to say to them next would send them into shock.

"Of course what my parents had been hiding was the fact that they had gone to an adoption agency with Danielle's life story in their back pockets," he explained to his friends as they took simultaneous sips of soda from fountain drink cups. "Everyone agreed and so basically at mine and Jazz's suggestion, they adopted Danielle into our family," Danny finally declared as he wrapped an arm around the girl as she smiled at him, her cheeks bulging with food, preventing her from making a true and complete smile.

Sam and Tucker's reactions to this turn of events were exactly the same. Out of shock, they both spat soda out of their mouths, which went all over the place, most notably over to the next table where the elderly couple had been dining. They were covered with soda and were not too pleased. They glared daggers at the teens. "Sorry," Tucker apologized as he wiped his face clean with a napkin. The elderly couple picked up their trays and moved across the restaurant near the main entrance to finish their meal.

"What!?" Sam said as she coughed as if she were about to hack up a hairball. "Your family is crazier than I thought; she's a permanent part of your family now!?" she asked as she indicated the girl with her hand.

"Yup!" Danielle said with glee. "I'm Danny and Jazz's younger sister now."

"I say one of them overshadowed their parents," Sam said to Tucker who nodded along in agreement as he took another sip of his soda. Sam picked hers up and was about to take a sip herself, but she never got the chance.

"Oh, you're just jealous that Danny hasn't asked you to officially join our family yet," Danielle snickered mockingly. Tucker suddenly squirted soda out of his nose like a fire hose while Sam crushed her soda cup in her hand as a fiery rage burned in her eyes.

"Heehee," Danny chuckled nervously. "That'll have to wait till later on in life when you understand the meaning of what you just said," he said nervously. He noticed Sam's eye was twitching as she contemplated revenge on the girl, so he came up with something else to break the tension. "How about this," he suggested. "You guys will be thrilled to learn that Jazz and I have decided to make her an official part of Team Phantom. Isn't that awesome?" he asked with joy in his voice.

"What!?" Sam and Tucker shouted angrily.

"Are you out of your mind!?" Sam shouted.

"Yah, we should have a say in the matter," Tucker said as he pointed his thumb into his chest.

"Common guys," Danny said in his newest little sister's defense. "You know she's capable. She's deceiving, tough, she can give Vlad a run for his money, and she can even weasel her way out of almost anything, whether it is with a well thought out plan or her devilish smiles." He said this indicating Danielle who smiled at Sam and Tucker with big watery eyes. "She will be a valuable asset to the team, I promise," he added as a last resort to convince them.

"Still, she could've gone through the same trouble we did to form a decent team," Sam speculated. "At first it was just us three, and then we added Jazz; that's four team members," she said as she held up four fingers. "And if you count Valerie who is now on our side for a change that makes five."

"And then of course there's your parents dude," Tucker decided to factor in. "Despite not being official members of the team, even they have their glorious moments. At least they let us handle the majority of protecting this town from ghosts," he reminded him.

"Well, I have been thinking of asking a couple of my friends from school if they'd be interested in helping out," Danielle pondered. "But I haven't known them for too long so I'll have to wait and see if they agree," she figured.

"See, let her do that," Sam half shouted. "At least if she does that then she won't be able to trouble us as much as she has."

"Oh yah, name one time that Danielle has ever been a nuisance to any of us," Danny challenged his girlfriend before a Flashback ensued.

* * *

"_So I hid her in the guest bedroom in the Op-Center, and she was GONE before I left for school," Danny explained to Sam and Tucker at the lunch table in the school's cafeteria. He was leaning on his elbow as he mellowed in his thoughts. That's when he looked up at his friends. "Are you guys ok?" he asked, noticing that something was obviously wrong for a change. _

_Sam and Tucker were glaring at him with very little interest in his problems. "Dude, we rebuilt a miniature golf course from scratch yesterday," Tucker reminded him. "How do you think we are?" he asked as he leaned onto the table. _

"_Guys, I'm sorry," Danny apologized sympathetically. _

"_Broken record," Tucker said as he and Sam folded their arms and looked away. _

"_No, I am, I'm sorry," Danny repeated himself as he raised his hands to shoulder height. "I was busy with a super powered cousin I didn't even know I had," he explained as he put his hands over his head moments before Dani in her ghost form phased her head up and through the table, dumping Danny's cafeteria tray of food all over Sam and Tucker. _

_Danny looked around nervously to make sure no one saw anything or was even looking in their direction for that matter as Dani waved to him. _

"_Aaand this must be her," Sam figured bitterly as she and Tucker stared daggers at the girl as they dripped with an assortment of what could only be conceived as soda, apple juice and some sort of green mush. Tucker's arms were still folded. _

The flashback moved forward to a point in the very same day when Danny was fighting with Vlad.

_Danny and Vlad began to exchange beams of energy that collided and pushed back against each other with Danny quickly losing. He was struggling to hold back Vlad's beam when he noticed Dani land on the ground behind him after he had apparently lost her in a speed race. _

"_Help me," he shouted to her as her hands glowed with green energy. "Do something," he pleaded for her help._

"_Oh, I am," Dani answered in a sinister whisper, more to herself than to him. She glared with a wicked grin as she held up her energized hands._

_The next thing Danny knew, he was being shot in the back by her blast. "ARGH!" he shouted before he collapsed to the ground and changed back into his human form. Dani lowered her energized hands to her side as Danny made his transformation. "Ugh, I don't understand," he said as he looked up at Vlad as Dani flew to his side. _

"_Did I do good daddy?" she asked in a sweet girlish tone, although she still grinned with a sinister smirk. _

"_You did excellent child," Vlad answered her. "I could not wish for a better daughter." She smiled at him as Danny apparently faded into unconsciousness as Vlad began to laugh maniacally. _

Another movement forward in the Flashback brought us to Vlad's Colorado estate, where he was conducting his cloning experiments.

_Danny phased through the wooden floor of Vlad's home as a fire crackled in the background. He landed on the floor and looked around. "Which way should I-ARGH!" he screamed as he was about to ask himself which way was out. _

_He was blasted from beneath by a powerful energy wave as Dani phased through the floor. Danny flew through the air and crashed into the wall before sliding to the floor with a grunt. Dani landed on the floor several feet away from him. "You're not going anywhere," she declared before she fired another ecto-plasmic energy blast at him. _

_Danny gasped when he looked up from the floor and noticed the beam of energy coming straight for him. He covered his head with his arms as a dome of ecto-energy surrounded him, protecting him from her attack. After the resulting cloud of dust dissipated, Danny looked up at her with a shocked look on his face. _

"_Stop fighting," she advised him. "I know you're too weak to beat me," she declared as she formed yet another ball of ecto-energy that appeared to spark with green electricity between her hands. _

"_I'm not going to fight you," Danny responded. "Every time I fight a clone they turn to goop." _

_With the energy ball still pulsating in her hands, Dani looked down and shrieked when she realized she was standing in a puddle of her own ecto-plasmic liquefied structure that bubbled and hissed as it dissolved and steamed away. With a scared expression and a gaping mouth, she reabsorbed the energy ball in her hands, effectively reabsorbing the ecto-plasmic goop she was standing in back into her feet. _

_She looked up as a recovered Danny approached her. "But you're not mindless like those other clones," he reminded her. "I don't want to hurt you," he said as he put up his hands to distance himself from her. _

"_Then let my father have your morph DNA," Dani declared. "So he can SAVE me," she said as she put her hand over her chest to indicate that she was clearly talking about her survival. _

"_He's NOT going to save you!" Danny declared with a scowl. "He's USING you!" he informed her as she frowned. "You're nothing but a mess he's not gunna clean up!" he said, provided he could have used some less hurtful words. _

_This made Dani snap. "You're a liar!" she half shouted with an unrelenting scowl. She formed yet another ball of pulsating ecto-energy that she then sent directly into Danny's stomach from point blank range, blasting him across the room and into an antique desk that was completely demolished. He appeared to be unconscious again as Dani stood over him. "And I'm going to prove it," she declared as she reached out to grab him, blacking out the scene and ending the series of flashbacks._

* * *

"I said name ONE time," Danny argued back to his friends back in the nasty burger. Danielle was still seated next to him, although, being reminded of her past actions had sent her into a near nervous breakdown. She eyes were wide and twitching as she tried to push back all the bad memories. "Besides, how do the two of you even know about those last two?" he asked his friends. "You weren't there."

"We're not as stupid as you think we are dude," Tucker said with his eyes half closed.

"Besides, those little reminders of what she has done to you and us don't even begin to scratch the surface," Sam continued to argue. "You ditched us for her while we were out patrolling the town," she reminded him. "Twice!" she said as she held up two fingers. "And the last time we were mauled by wolverines," she reminded him as she held up her arm and revealed four scars that were finally beginning to heal and fade away.

"Plus she physically jumped us by surprise due to a massive sugar high," Tucker added. "TWICE!" he said as he too held up two fingers. "And then of course there's the time she bit Valerie just outside on the sidewalk," he added as he pointed his thumb out the window.

"What's this talk about me?" a girl asked as she approached the table. The four of them looked up to see Valerie in her work uniform. She held a bagged lunch in her hands; apparently this was her break time.

"Oh, get this," Sam said with a scowl. "You're gunna love it," she said sarcastically as Valerie took a seat next to them, squishing Tucker between them. "Danielle has been adopted," she informed the ghost huntress.

"Danny's parents are the culprits," Tucker added. "With a little help of course," he growled as he glanced towards Danny and Danielle who smirked innocently.

"Really?" Valerie asked with a raised eyebrow as if she were shocked by this turn of events. "That's so great!" she said with a delighted smile.

"Say what?" Tucker asked with a raised eyebrow of his own.

"Well I'm happy for her," Valerie confessed as she opened her lunch bag and removed a sandwich. "She deserves a good home, and with a family that sees her as their own," she said with a wink at Danny who gave her one back in return.

"But Valerie, don't you remember what she did to you three months ago?" Sam asked her. "She bit you!" she reminded her.

"So," Valerie laughed. "That was one time, plus she was at the end of a massive sugar high," she declared. "I did the exact same thing to my dad when I was her age," she informed them with a smirk. "Besides, she didn't draw any blood, and the bruising disappeared in a week. We shouldn't be judging her by the bad things she's done when she's done good things too. I'm sure she regrets what she's done," she said with a bit of sorrow in her voice.

"I do, I really do!" Danielle declared in her own defense. "But my list of good things isn't really that long."

"Well let's hear them," Valerie encouraged her as she took a bite into her lunch.

"Well I got Danny, Sam and Tucker out of trouble with Danny's; I mean; our parents," she remembered back. "Also, I helped Danny trap his-" she was about to say before Danny covered her mouth.

"E-way aren't-way upposed-say o-tay alk-tay about-way at-thay...emember-ray?" Danny spoke in Pig-Latin as he scowled at her.

"Oh right, sorry," she apologized before she continued. "I helped Danny and Sam with their relationship once," she suddenly remembered.

"What!?" Sam shouted. "When was this!?" she demanded to know.

"You remember," Danielle said before she started to become a bit more devious. "You remember the mistletoe don't you?" she teased the older girl.

"Reeeeally?" Tucker said with a grin as Sam began to blush. "May I ask what happened?" he asked out of interest in hopes that he could use it to make fun of her later on.

Sam blushed deeper red and growled as she grabbed an un-eaten nasty burger and shoved it into his mouth. "Nothing happened," she snarled at him, making Valerie nearly fall out of her seat with laughter.

Suddenly Irving, the Nasty Burger manager, and Valerie's boss, yelled out to her. "Valerie!" he shouted from across the restaurant. "You're supposed to be watching the vats of nasty sauce at all times!" he reminded her.

"I'm on my lunch break here dude!" Valerie snapped at him. "I swear, one day I'm gunna tie him up to those things and raise the temperature until they explode," she seethed with anger, making an unrealized reference to Danny's dark future. She got up and left the table to go argue with him. She could be heard arguing with him in the background, although their speech was incomprehensible.

Danny's cell phone suddenly began beeping, not from receiving a call or a text message, but the alarm had been set and was going off to the predetermined set time. "Well, we've gotta be off," he said, putting the phone back into his pants pocket. "We've got plans to watch the New Years ball drop with Jazz," he reminded his now little sister.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, back up a minute there Sparky," Sam said as she put her hands up to stop him. "You're blowing us off for her again!?" she shouted with rage.

"Will this ever end dude!?" Tucker shouted as he threw his hands into the air over his head.

"Nope," Danny teased them as he rose from his seat at the table. He grabbed Danielle's hand and led her away from the table. "But take solace in the fact that Jazz will be with us, so we won't be alone," he mocked them because he now knew that it would bother them. "See you guys next year!" he called out to them as he waved over his should and made his way for the exit with Danielle in hand.

"ARGH!" Sam yelled as she grabbed another cup of soda and chucked it at them, but missed when it hit the wall and exploded, covering the elderly couple from earlier in the sticky, sugary soft drink.

The two elderly folk growled and seethed with anger as they rose from the table. "Uhh ohh, guess we're gunna have to walk out of here to escape from their wrath," Tucker figured with a smile, although Sam wasn't quite as sure as him.

"Think again," she said nervously. Their eyes widened before they ran away towards a side door to escape the elderly couple as they gave chase to the two teens. Remarkably they were able to keep up with them at such frail ages. The scene ended after they had all disappeared off screen.

* * *

A little while later Danny and Danielle re-entered Fenton-Works after sloshing their way home through the snow. "We're back!" Danny called out as the door shut behind them. "Anybody home!?" he asked when he was treated to silence. Then Jazz ran into the living room from the kitchen.

"It's about time you got home," she scolded them. "Mom and Dad are out and I've been waiting on you two for almost an hour. We've gotta get going if we're gunna make it to see the ball drop in time," she informed them.

"What ball is she talking about?" Danielle asked as she looked up at Danny.

"It's another one of those traditions that you are oh so fond of," he teased her. "To commemorate the coming of a New Year a giant glass ball is lowered from a giant pole until it reaches the bottom, at which point fireworks go off at the exact moment that the New Year comes at Midnight."

"Midnight!?" Danielle said in shock. "And we get to watch this happen!?" she asked with delight. "I've never been allowed to stay up that late before! Except when I was living on the streets," she reminded herself. "But who cares!?" she tossed the thought aside.

"If you're done cheering, we've gotta get going if we're gunna make it in time to see the ball drop," Jazz reminded the girl to calm her down.

"But Midnight is still nine hours away," Danielle said as she looked at the clock. "Where could we possibly be going that's going to take that long to get there?" she asked with a scowl as she put her hands on her hips.

Danny and Jazz exchanged suspiciously raised eyebrows as the scene faded several hours into the future. The sky had turned dark in the late of night, but it still glowed with light pollution, preventing any stars from being seen. The view panned down until a large lightning rod appeared and continued to ascend until the Specter Speeder was seen sitting at the top of a rather tall building.

Dressed warmly to compensate for the cold weather, Danny, Jazz and Danielle looked over the edge of the building to see huge festivities going on in the maze of streets below. They were at the top of the Empire State Building in New York City, and from way up there they had a perfect view of Times Square where the New Years ball had already begun its descent.

They had brought fold-up lawn chairs with them so they didn't have to stand or sit in the snow that high off the ground. "Is it really so crowded down there that we have to stay up here where nobody can see us?" Danielle asked out of boredom.

"Yes it is," Jazz answered. "Now take your party blower," she said as she stuffed the colored paper tube into the girl's mouth. "Only twenty seconds until midnight."

"We've always watched this from home on the TV," Danny said in amazement as he looked over the edge of the building at the bustling city below them. "This is a real once in a lifetime opportunity here."

"Twelve seconds to go," Jazz informed them. "Let the countdown commence!" she cheered.

"Ten!" she and Danny called out with delight, although Danielle said it in a bored tone. She yawned with a wide mouth because she was so sleepy. "Nine!" they called out.

Down in the streets of Times Square everybody was also counting down. "Eight! Seven!" everybody called out in unison.

Elsewhere, back in Amity Park; Sam and Tucker were watching the ball drop on TV with their parents. "Six! Five!" they and their parents yelled with excitement.

At Fenton-Works, Jack and Maddie were also watching the ball drop on TV. "Four! Three!" they both shouted as they prepared to drink from small glasses of wine at the beginning of the New Year.

Somewhere deep in the woods, a small redneck community had gathered to watch the ball drop on a small TV that flickered between a healthy signal and a static one. This was the small town of Spittoon, where Maddie's sister currently resided. "Two-huu-huu!" one of the redneck men called out.

"ONE!" Danny and Jazz said with excitement.

Danielle blew into her party blower as she leaned back in her lawn chair. She stopped blowing and her eyes widened when she realized she had leaned back too far. She tried desperately to balance herself out by waving her arms in circles, but she fell back, rolled out her chair and hit her head on the ground. She doubled over in pain just as a series of fireworks were set off.

"HAPPY NEW YEAR!" Danny and Jazz called out before they blew into their party blowers. That's when they looked down to see Danielle holding her head after she had fallen out of her seat.

"Oh, that's too bad right there," Jazz cooed. "You just missed out on the fireworks."

"What!?" Danielle gasped, suddenly free from the pain that racked her head. She dashed for the edge of the building and looked over to see the people in the streets below partying as the smoke from the fireworks drifted down around them. "Oh no!" she wailed.

"Ahh, a brand new year," Danny said with a smile. "A new year full of discovery, adventures and anything else that school, ghosts, or our parents can throw at us," he said with delight.

"And I missed it," Danielle groaned sadly.

"There's always next year," Jazz reminded the girl as she laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. "But the most important thing to remember is that no matter what happens, we'll all be in it together."

Danielle smiled and stood up as the three siblings shared in one big embrace. "I love you guys," Danielle said in a muffled voice, her face being pressed into Jazz's jacket.

"And we love you too," Danny responded. Then in the midst of their family moment, his cell phone began to ring. "It's probably mom and dad," he figured as he pulled away from the girls and opened his phone to answer it. "Hello?" he said as he put the phone to his ear.

"Ahh, why hello Daniel," said the drawling voice of Vlad Masters on the other end of the line.

"Vlad!?" he shouted making Danielle and Jazz jump in shock. "How'd you get this number!?" he demanded to know.

"I got it from your father's phone," Vlad answered. "Now, do you remember what I said to you before I left?"

"That you'd be coming for me after the New Year started?" Danny asked. In the background, Danielle and Jazz had noticed something in the air above them and were eyeballing it pretty nervously.

"Yes well I feel some obligation to give you some sort of fair warning," Vlad informed him in a demeaning tone before he hung up.

Danny lowered his phone and closed it as a confused look spread across his face. He looked back at his sisters and followed their gaze into the sky. He jumped in surprise when he saw Vlad floating over them in his vampiric ghost form.

"It's January first Daniel," Vlad snickered as he crushed the phone in his hand as if it were nothing. "I told you I'd be coming for you," he reminded him.

Danny's surprised expression changed to a confident grin. "And I've been waiting a long time for this moment," he said with glee as he transformed into his ghost form. "It's been far too long since I've kicked your butt."

"You? Kick my butt?" Vlad asked curiously. "Oh, I don't think so my dear boy."

"I've gotten stronger in these last few months Plasmius," Danny said through his grin.

"Then don't disappoint me," Vlad said as he set the stage. He fired an energy blast at them but Danny was easily able to deflect it away with a swipe of his arm. He then pushed off from the roof of the skyscraper and charged Vlad; exchanging randomly shot energy blasts with him as they wove around one another in mid-flight.

Danielle and Jazz just watched in awe from the roof of the skyscraper. "You know, now would be a good opportunity to test how well the two of you fight as a team," Jazz encouraged the girl at her side.

Danielle seemed hesitant at first, but smiled when she realized Jazz was right. She changed into her ghost form and jumped into the air, charging straight for Vlad who had his hands locked together with Danny's. He failed to notice Danielle fly up beneath him and head butt him in the stomach.

He and Danny released their grasps and he flew backwards, holding his stomach as he grinned at the girl as she floated by Danny's side. "I always knew you were hard headed," he punned her.

"Jeez, I was wondering when you'd decide to jump in," Danny chuckled.

"You wanna ask questions, or do you wanna kick some butt?" she asked him with a grin. He smiled in return and they floated side by side like old times as they fired twin energy beams in Vlad's direction, ending the story and leaving the conclusion to the fight up to the readers.


End file.
